Transformational leadership practices of deans and the perceived

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Transformational leadership practices of deans andthe perceived organizational culture of United ArabEmirates public universities : a regression analysisstudyMouwafac Sidaoui

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The University of San Francisco

TRANSFORMATIONAL LEADERSHIP PRACTICES OF DEANS AND THE PERCEIVED ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE OF UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES: A REGRESSION ANALYSIS STUDY

A Dissertation Presented to

The Faculty of the School of Education Organization & Leadership Department

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree

Doctor of Education

by

Mouwafac Sidaoui

San Francisco May 2007

This dissertation, written under the direction of the candidate’s dissertation committee

and approved by the members of the committee, has been presented to and accepted by

the Faculty of the School of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the

degree of Doctor of Education. The content and research methodologies presented in this

work represent the work of the candidate alone.

Mouwafac Sidaoui, Candidate Date Dissertation Committee Dr. Patricia Mitchell, Chairperson Dr. Bettye Taylor, Second Reader Dr. Mathew Mitchell, Third Reader

iii

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Many special people and experiences accompanied me on this doctoral journey. I

take this opportunity to express my appreciation. Foremost gratitude is given to Allah

[God]. The journey has been a prayerful experience of transformational growth for me. I

am grateful for God’s abundant grace.

Profound gratitude is given to my dear father Mohamed and my late mother

Nawal, for their blessings, their strong work ethic, and for serving as living role models

in my life. Their steadfast interest and encouragement supported every stage of my

studies and writing. A special thanks to Sabah Sidaoui for her inspirational attributes and

love. I extend my thanks for the continuous interest, love and support of my siblings

Wafa, Nahed Toufic, and Nahla, their spouses and families. My sincere gratitude goes to

the late Prime Minister of Lebanon Dr. Rafik Hariri who gave me a full scholarship in

1985 to pursue my academic dream and beyond.

Stepping into the scholarly dissertation process presented some trepidation. I

wish to give my heartfelt thanks to Dr. Patricia Mitchell, my dissertation chairperson, for

dispelling any fears by her gifted guidance, editorial expertise, gentle frankness, and

personal interest. I treasure her compassionate mentorship and friendship, I am forever

grateful.

My gratitude is given to my committee members, Dr. Mathew Mitchell and Dr.

Bettye Taylor for their conscientious critique and insightful suggestions that sharpened

the integrity of my dissertation. My dissertation committee members provided me with

very positive experiences in the oral defenses. I am most grateful.

iv

I am thankful to my friend Dr. Gus Vouchilas for his time, dedication, and

scholarly support during my writing and editing of my dissertation.

I would like to acknowledge the professionalism of the School of Education

faculty and staff, especially Dr. Ben Baab, for the technical and statistical support in data

analysis. I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my colleagues in the Graduate Student

Association and Phi Delta Kappa who challenged my thoughts and broadened my world

views. A special thanks to Dr. Cheryl Boglarsky and Ms. Crystal Carrico at the Human

Synergistics International for their data analysis guidance with the Organizational Culture

Inventory instrument; and to Dr. Barry Posner co-author of the Leadership Practices

Inventory instrument for his support while using his instrument.

Supportive services were important assets to my study and research. I am deeply

grateful to the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of San Francisco for the

tuition remission which allowed me the possibility of full-time doctoral study.

My study would not have been possible without the generous response of the

people out in the field. I am indebted to Dr. Essam Hafiz at the United Arab Emirates

University, Dr. Jim Pounder at Higher Colleges of Technology, and Dr. Larry Wilson at

Zayed University for giving me permission to conduct my study at their universities, and

for their invaluable contribution to my study. With deep gratitude, I am humbled by the

generosity of time and insights shared by my research participants from the three

universities in the United Arab Emirates.

Finally, I am thankful to the support of my wonderful family, cherished friends

and colleagues who have supported me throughout this personal journey. To them I

extend my heartfelt gratitude.

v

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1 Key Descriptors for Transformational Leadership Practices.............................. 13

Table 2 Transformational Leadership Practices and Corresponding Statements ........... 41

Table 3 Transformational Leadership and Perceived Constructive Organizational Culture................................................................................................................ 46

Table 4 Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) Culture Styles and Subscales ............ 49

Table 5 Dean LPI Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Transformational Leadership Practices .......................................................................................... 62

Table 6 Dean LPI Mean Scores – Minimum and Maximum for Leadership Practices .. 64

Table 7 Dean OCI Mean Scale Scores, Standard Deviations, Percentiles, Strengths, and Intensities ........................................................................................................... 65

Table 8 Dean Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Perceptions of Organizations 69

Table 9 Correlation Coefficients Values of Transformational Leadership Practices and Individual Organization Culture Styles for the Deans....................................... 71

Table 10 Correlation Coefficients of Individual Transformational Leadership Practices and Individual Organization Culture Styles for the Deans ................................ 73

Table 11 Major Qualitative Themes Across The Six Interviews...................................... 84

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Transformational Leadership Practices ............................................................. 11

Figure 2. Research Concept Map...................................................................................... 18

Figure 3. Levels of Analysis In Relation to the Concept of Organizational Culture........ 23

Figure 4. Relationships of National, Personal, and Organizational Culture..................... 26

Figure 5. Regression Analysis of LPI and Individual OCI Style...................................... 42

Figure 6. Relationships Between LPI and Individual OCI Style ...................................... 42

Figure 7. Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) Circumplex ....................................... 51

Figure 8. Histogram and Normal Curve of Dean LPI Practices Scale.............................. 63

Figure 9. Circumplex of OCI Style of Deans at Public Universities in the UAE............. 68

Figure 10. Regression Analysis of LPI and Individual OCI Style.................................... 71

Figure 11. Relationship Between Individual LPI Practice and Individual OCI Style ...... 72

Figure 12. Circumplex of OCI Style of Deans at Public Universities in the UAE........... 88

vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................................................................................. iii

LIST OF TABLES.............................................................................................................. v

LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... vi

CHAPTER I ........................................................................................................................ 1

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM........................................................................................... 1

Introduction 1 Background and Need for the Study....................................................................... 3 Statement of the Research Problem ........................................................................ 7 Purpose of the Study ............................................................................................... 9 Research Questions................................................................................................. 9 Rationale and Theoretical Framework.................................................................. 10 Significance of the Study ...................................................................................... 14 Limitations 16 Definition of Terms............................................................................................... 17 Summary 18

CHAPTER II..................................................................................................................... 19

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE........................................................................ 19

Overview 19 Organizational Culture.......................................................................................... 20 National Culture & Higher Education .................................................................. 23 National Culture, Personal Culture, and Organizational Culture ......................... 24 Leaders and Culture .............................................................................................. 27 Transformational Leadership ................................................................................ 28 Academic Deans as Transformational Leaders..................................................... 29 United Arab Emirates National Culture and Higher Education............................ 31 The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education................................................ 32

United Arab Emirates University.............................................................. 33 Higher Colleges of Technology................................................................ 34 Zayed University....................................................................................... 35

Muslim Culture and Education in the United Arab Emirates ............................... 36 Summary 37

CHAPTER III ................................................................................................................... 39

METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 39

Restatement of the Purpose................................................................................... 39 Research Design .................................................................................................... 39

viii

Population and Sample ......................................................................................... 43 Profile of the Researcher....................................................................................... 44 Protection of Human Subjects .............................................................................. 45 Instrumentation .................................................................................................... 46

Leadership Practices Inventory................................................................. 47 Validity ......................................................................................... 47 Reliability...................................................................................... 48

Organizational Culture Inventory ............................................................. 48 Validity ......................................................................................... 52 Reliability...................................................................................... 52

Quantitative Online Surveys ..................................................................... 53 Qualitative Phone Interview ..................................................................... 54

Data Collection .................................................................................................... 55 Data Analysis 56

Quantitative Data Analysis ....................................................................... 56 Qualitative Data Analysis ......................................................................... 58

CHAPTER IV ................................................................................................................... 60

FINDINGS........................................................................................................................ 60

Overview 60 Research Questions and Quantitative Findings .................................................... 61

Research Question One............................................................................. 61 Research Question Two ............................................................................ 64 Research Question Three .......................................................................... 70 Research Question Four............................................................................ 72 Research Question Five ............................................................................ 74

Research Questions and Qualitative Findings ...................................................... 74 Research Question One............................................................................. 75 Research Question Two ............................................................................ 78 Research Question Three .......................................................................... 79 Research Question Four............................................................................ 82 Research Question Five ............................................................................ 83

Summary of Major Qualitative Findings .............................................................. 83 Summary of Major Quantitative Findings ............................................................ 85 Summary of Quantitative and Qualitative Findings ............................................. 89

CHAPTER V .................................................................................................................... 91

CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, and RECOMMENDATIONS............................... 91

Conclusions 91 Implications 97 Recommendations for Professional Practices....................................................... 99 Recommendations for Future Research .............................................................. 100 Concluding Thoughts.......................................................................................... 102

ix

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 104

APPENDIXES ................................................................................................................ 114

Appendix A Glossary of Terms....................................................................... 115 Appendix B Brief History and Education System of the UAE ....................... 116 Appendix C OCI Culture Types and Subscales .............................................. 118 Appendix D LPI and Corresponding Definitions ............................................ 120 Appendix E Electronic Mail Letter of Invitation ............................................ 122 Appendix F Informed Consent Form.............................................................. 123 Appendix G Sample Follow-up Letter ............................................................ 125 Appendix H Permission Letter from United Arab Emirates University ......... 126 Appendix I Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) ......................................... 127 Appendix J Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) ®................................. 130 Appendix K Qualitative Questionnaire ........................................................... 131 Appendix L IRBPHS Approval Letter............................................................ 132 Appendix M List of Possible Research Participants ........................................ 133 Appendix N Sample Job Description of Dean in the UAEU .......................... 135 Appendix O Approval Letter from Kouzes & Posner LPI Instrument............ 138 Appendix P Approval Letter from Human Synergisitcs OCI Instrument....... 139

1

CHAPTER I

THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Introduction

Universities worldwide are undergoing profound changes through increased

growth and with continued enthusiasm. They are currently facing new challenges as

economic change, coupled with developments in science and technology are springing

forth new dynamics, which impact organizational growth as well as leadership and

culture. A successful university in this millennium requires an organizational culture that

supports innovation, learning, creativity and utilizes the maximum potentials of its

leaders. Universities ultimately vest in individuals with whom successful leadership will

motivate, develop, and focus on the global trends of convergent social, cultural, and

organizational change.

Academic institutions such as universities are complex social organizations with

distinctive cultures. In higher education, effective leadership is imperative to the

university’s success (Bass, 1985). More importantly, leadership is essential to the growth

and development of organizational culture. Therefore, leaders of higher education, such

as deans, need to be “aware of the critical role and understanding of culture plays in their

effort to simulate learning and change and how intricately intertwined their own behavior

is with culture creation and management” (Schein, 1992, p. xi). Academic deans are often

considered visionaries who will lead the transformation of their university. As

administrative officers of the university, the deans are often responsible for sustaining an

environment that encourages excellence in teaching, research and program development

and active collaboration across the university (Land, 2003).

2

Culture is a big part of the organization, defined as the source that binds people

through an elusive “socially constructed constellation consisting of such things as

practices, competencies, ideas, schemas, symbols, values, norms, institutions, goals,

constitutive rules, artifacts, and modifications of the physical environment” (Fiske, 2002,

p. 85). In addition, culture also refers to the unique characteristics that all of us possess,

distinguishing us as individuals and identify us as belonging to a group or subgroups.

Culture implies structural stability, patterning, and integration, and is the accumulation of

shared learning from shared history. The cultural role and function of leadership, shapes

policy, determines organizational direction, and negotiates privilege (Schein, 2004).

Organizations are considered to be similar to nations and tribes because, “they are

like rational units, mechanistic entities, or a set of scientific management processes”

(Stupak, 1998, p. 1). Organizational culture can be useful when it moves the organization

from the invisible to the more visible dimensions in terms of operating style and

substance (Stupak, 1998). Therefore, organizational culture is everywhere within an

organization and can be found at every level; because members of an organization are

multicultural entities, understanding the varied cultures is significant “because the beliefs,

values, and behavior of individuals are often understood only in the context of people’s

cultural identities” (Schein, 1999, p. 14). Furthermore, organizational culture has been

characterized as the “glue that holds organizations together” (Goffee & Jones, 1996, p.

133-149).

According to Schein (1992), the organizational culture begins with leaders who

impose their own values and assumption on a group. Consequently, the organizational

culture will affect the values, beliefs and assumptions of the leaders. Likewise, the values

3

beliefs, and assumptions will be passed on to the new members within the organization.

One of the greatest challenges for leaders is how they may perceive the limitations of

their own culture and to develop some adaptability (Schein, 1992).

Organizational culture share a common goal “to uncover and interpret aspects of

organizational life so that we can better understand the perceptions, beliefs, and actions

of organizational members” (Martin, Su, and Beckman, 1997, p. 3). Within an

organization, there are core sets of values and beliefs held by its members, often referred

to as the organizational culture, which is silent and ingrained, in an ever-changing

environment. Consequently, it is relevant to understand how the organizational culture

may affect the academic leadership within university settings. Therefore, it is important

to study the organizational culture and in relation to the leadership of the dean. Schein

stated that organizational culture is important because it belongs to the group and:

“…it is a powerful, latent, and often unconscious set of forces that determine both our individual and collective behavior, ways of perceiving, thought patterns, and values. Organizational culture in particular matters because cultural elements determine strategy, goals, and modes of operating.” (1999, p. 14).

This study focused on the academic deans in the public universities in the United

Arab Emirates (UAE). The two theories that were used in this study are transformational

leadership and organizational culture to analyze the relationship of the perceived

organizational culture to leadership styles; and to determine how much the

transformational leadership practices of the deans are predictive of the universities’

organizational culture.

Background and Need for the Study

To date, a great deal of research has focused on organizational culture in relation

to leadership practices in different organizational settings from a variety of perspectives,

4

ranging from disciplines such as, sociology, anthropology, management science, and

organizational change (Collins & Porras, 1994; Kotter & Haskett, 1992). However,

because of the scarcity of literature discussing the relationship between the leadership

practices of deans and their perceived organizational culture in the UAE, this study

attempted to determine if transformational leadership practices of the deans predict the

organizational culture at public universities in the UAE. Bahgat (1999) asserts that in the

UAE, strategic leadership of education is particularly essential as socio-economic and

political transformation have been significant and dramatic during the past 35 years.

Moreover, this topic appears to have been overlooked in the expansion and

transformation of education in the UAE since the country development and changes have

been so rapid (Bahgat, 1999).

The main assets and exports of the UAE are its oil and pearls. The country is

situated in the southeast of the Arabian Peninsula in Southwest Asia, comprised seven

emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-

Quwain (see Appendix B).

Prior to the discovery of oil, there was very little development in the UAE and

certainly no proper educational system. As recent as 1960, there were no roads, hospitals,

or formal schools. According to Al Maktoum (2005), in 1962, when oil production

started in Abu Dhabi, the country had 20 schools and approximately 4,000 students, of

whom the majority was boys. Since gaining independence from 1971, the UAE has used

its oil revenue to transform its economy and infrastructure and became a powerful

country in the region and internationally. Due to the new federation, approximately 75%

of the population of the UAE are expatriates from other Arab countries, the Indian

5

subcontinent, the Far East, Europe, North America, and elsewhere (UAE Embassy, 2004)

and 25% are local—Emiratis (Wagie & Fox, 2005). Consequently, the UAE has a dual

set of cultural values that are observable in most organizational practices, including

academic ones; this is partially due to the 150 year long British colonization of UAE that

ended in 1970.

Because of the large international influence, the political leaders of the UAE often

import modern technology and put them to use in the service of sociopolitical systems.

They also hire many Westerners and other Arabs to lead many of the country’s academic

institutions, while the higher authorities, such as presidents and chancellors continue to

be consistent with the tribal culture, as well as adapting to the modern system they have

introduced. Tribal traditions and its collectivistic culture profoundly infrequent UAE

leadership and hence leaders tend to play the role of tribe leaders or sheiks.

Cultural identity in the UAE forms a blend of traditional Arabic, Islamic and

contemporary style. Following the federation there has been a governmental focus on

public and private educational opportunities and there has been increase in the

development of cultural centers. For example, cultural and academic libraries began to

rise up around the country to promote cultural awareness and assisting in the

conservation of the heritage of the country (UAE Embassy, 2004).

Education in the UAE has been the backbone for producing skillful leaders who

are capable of adopting new technology, as well as keeping their traditional identities as

Muslims and Arabs. Therefore, it is commonly known that the only way to improve the

productivity of society is by improving the skills of the labor force and raising the

educational attainment of its citizen (Sheikh Zayed, 2004).

6

As in other parts of the Islamic world, for many years mosques served as centers

for teaching-principally reading, writing and recitation of the Quran, the holy book of

Islam. In 1953 the first school that offered a comprehensive curriculum was built by the

British. In the early part of the 20th century, pearl merchants instituted schools staffed by

foreign—Western and Arab—teachers; and then the founders of the UAE saw a

tremendous expansion of education (UAE Embassy, 2004). In the past 35 years the UAE

has transformed its educational system; currently, they have over 30 institutions of higher

learning (see Appendix B).

In the 1980s approximately 25% of UAE national students were educated abroad,

and the proportion is now likely to be higher (Economist Intelligence Unit, 2003). Upon

completing their higher education and returning to the UAE, it was expected that the

Emiratis’ students would have gained new leadership styles, which can be viewed as an

advantage to bring new models and tools to help shape their organizations and to form

the organizational culture.

Organizational culture provides consistency for the organization and its members,

it also offers the leader a reliable system of leadership that is rooted in previous successes

(Schneider, 1994). Cameron and Quinn stated that most, “organizational scholars and

observers now recognize that organizational culture has a powerful effect on the

performance and long-term effectiveness of organizations” (1999, p. 4). They believe that

the culture of the organization makes it unique because each of the members carries the

ideology inside their heads affecting everything they do (Cameron & Quinn, 1999).

7

Statement of the Research Problem

The concepts of transformational leadership and organizational culture have

received a lot of attention in recent years, specifically in the financial sector (Collins &

Porras, 1994; Kotter & Haskett, 1992). According to Gmelch (1999), while there has

been much research done about leadership in higher education, there has been very little

research conducted on leadership of deans. Gmelch further notes that by the mid 1980’s

research on leadership of deans consisted of two volumes published in the mid 1960’s

(Dibden, 1968; Gould, 1964), minimal articles on deans of college education (Kapel &

Dejnozka, 1979; Anderson & King, 1987), deans of law (Abramson & Moss, 1979), and

deans of sociology (Bowker, 1982). However, deans are slowly gaining recognition as

academic leaders and agents of change (Gmelch & Miskin, 1995).

As academic leaders, deans should strive for consistent future planning while

dealing with the present. According to Findlen (2000), deans should acquire constant

knowledge, and have “commitment to lifelong learning, and the courage to embrace

change in the evolving world of higher education” (p. 2). Within the realm of higher

education lies the notion of organizational culture. Within organizational culture, the

integration of transformational leadership is very essential. It should offer a foundation,

which seeks to strengthen cultural growth.

The public academic institutions in the UAE are rooted in the Arabic and Muslim

culture given the country’s geographic location, religious background and history.

Additionally, public academic institutions in the UAE are financially funded by the

government. Therefore, the UAE national culture has some impact on the organizational

cultures. In the UAE, 75% of the workforce, including deans are currently non-native

8

(Wagie & Fox, 2005). As such, their leadership perspectives may be founded on

ideologies which may not fully capture the Arabic culture and Islamic roots. In addition,

academic organizational culture may not be reflective of transformational leadership

tenets.

Transformational leadership has been categorized as a supportive and

empowering method, in which leaders develop an environment that is about inspiring,

enabling, and encouraging (Kouzes and Posner, 1994). Constructive organizations as

defined by Cooke and Laferty (1989), refer to those which are achieving, encouraging,

and self-actualizing for all members of the organization. Moreover, constructive

organizational culture is considered the common assumption and the value system, by

which members of the organization view their interaction with each other and with their

organizational environment (Pettigrew, 1979). Therefore, it is a reasonable expectation

that a constructive organizational culture may be enhanced through transformational

leadership practices as they both rely on related approaches.

Deans bring prior knowledge and many years of academic leadership experience

to their institutions (Gmelch & Miskin, 1995). As an academic executive officer, “the

dean as the leader actually creates the stage for future operations while managing day-to-

day activities” (Bragg, 2000, p. 75). Consequently, deans help shape the organizational

culture. At the heart of this research lies the challenge of integrating preexistent national

culture with extant leader behaviors and practices, while seeking to integrate

transformational values which may elicit constructive organizational cultures.

9

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between

transformational leadership practices of the deans and the perceived organizational

culture of public universities in the UAE. Additionally, the study assessed to what degree

the decisions and leadership practices of the deans are predictive of the universities’

organizational culture, which in some instances may be driven from the national Arabic

and Muslim culture.

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study:

1. To what extent do Deans at the public universities in the United Arab

Emirates practice the five transformational leadership practices, challenging,

inspiring, enabling, modeling, and encouraging?

2. What are the Deans’ perceptions of their organizational culture at the public

universities in the United Arab Emirates?

3. To what extent does the transformational leadership of the Deans predict the

constructive organizational culture at the various public universities in the

United Arab Emirates?

4. What is the relationship between specific transformational leadership practices

of the Deans and the types of organizational culture at public universities in

the United Arab Emirates?

5. What are the self-perceptions of the leadership practices of the Deans based

on the following variables: gender, ethnic background, current experience

level, and tenure?

10

Rationale and Theoretical Framework

The theoretical framework for this study was based on Kouzes and Posner’s

(1995) transformational leadership theory, and Cooke and Lafferty’s (1994)

organizational culture theory.

Transformational leadership theory has been a prominent representative of the

new leadership theories that occupy center stage in leadership research in the last decade.

The transformational leadership theory was originated by Burns (1978), with the core of

transformation of the leader and making change within the organization. According to

Burns (1978), transformational leadership is a process of elevation among leaders and

followers with a direct impact on organizational effectiveness. The assumption is that

employees will follow a leader who inspires them exhibits charismatic behaviors,

provides intellectual stimulation, leads with a clear vision and passion, and in the end can

achieve great things (Bass, 1990). Transformational leaders are those who transform their

followers toward reaching their full potential and generate higher levels of performance,

because subordinates are central to the theory of transformational leadership (Bass &

Avolio, 1990). According to Kouzes and Posner (2002):

“Leadership that focuses on a committing style is what leadership scholars have called transformational leadership. Transformational leadership occurs when, in their interactions, people raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality. But transforming leadership ultimately becomes moral in that it raises the level of human conduct and ethical aspirations of both the leader and the led, and thus it has a transforming effect on both.” (p. 153, 178-179).

The transformational leadership theory was used in this study because academic

deans are part of the leadership team that is constantly leading the UAE into its next

economical growth. In addition, Kouzes and Posner’s theory (1995) focuses on learnable

11

leadership practices; because many of the academic deans are expatriates, they are

constantly learning how to better lead in a new developed foreign culture to their own.

The first theory belongs to the transformational leadership style category (Kouzes

and Posner, 1995). The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) instrument approaches

leadership as a set of behaviors that can be measured, learned, and taught. This

assessment tool helps individuals and organizations measure their leadership

competencies. The advantage of using this instrument allows for continuously testing the

initial findings of the five practices model of leadership: (1) Challenging the Process, (2)

Inspiring a Shared Vision, (3) Enabling Others to Act, (4) modeling the way, and (5)

Encouraging the Heart. This transformational leadership theory also provides a tool that

can help leaders assess the extent to which they actually use those practices so that they

can make plans for modifications and improvement (Kouzes & Posner, 1995), those

leadership practices are shown in Figure 1.

challenge the process

inspire a shared vision

enable others to act

model the way

encourage the heart

TransformationalLeadershipPractices

3

1

2

4

5

Figure 1. Transformational Leadership Practices

Five Leadership Practices adapted from the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) designed by Kouzes and Posner (1995).

The first leadership practice focuses on Challenging the Process, where leaders

along with their employees work harder to exceed the accepted limits. It also refers to

continuously contributing, innovating, solving problems creatively, and embracing every

12

failure as an opportunity to grow and improve. The second leadership practice, to

Inspiring a Shared Vision, refers to the ability of leaders to have an understanding of

difficulties that lie ahead, but also to have a vision of future exciting possibilities and

share their vision with those they work. The third leadership practice, to Enabling Others

to Act, involves the people they are working within the decision-making process,

unlocking the enthusiasm and energy needed for achievement, and providing the

necessary physical and emotional tools that people need to achieve the set goals. The

fourth leadership practice, modeling the way, encourages leaders to set high standards

and lead through their own values. This consistency between words and actions build

leaders’ credibility and trustworthiness. Leaders also plan small wins that promote steady

progress and build commitment to action. The final leadership practice, Encouraging the

Heart, is a characteristic of leaders who know that the path to the summit is hard and

pursuing a vision needs heart. Thus, leaders recognize others’ contribution to the

common vision and encourage people through acknowledgments, awards, and public

praise. Table 1 shows the key descriptors for transformational leadership practices.

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Table 1 Key Descriptors for Transformational Leadership Practices

Leadership Practices Key Descriptors

Challenging the Process Seeking out change, growth, innovation; taking risks; learning from mistakes.

Inspiring a Shared Vision Vision Envisioning the future; enlisting others; appealing to hopes and values.

Enabling Others to Act Fostering collaboration; building trust; giving power away; offering support.

Modeling the Way Setting the example; promoting consistent progress; building commitment.

Encouraging the Heart Recognizing individuals; celebrating team accomplishments.

Key Descriptors for Transformational Leadership Practices as Defined by Kouzes and Posner (1995).

The Leadership Practices Inventory was used in this study because research by

Preece (2005) suggests that the UAE and its public universities undergone a profound

transformation and have adopted many new leadership practices. In addition, Adam

(2003) asserts that educational leaders who use transformational leadership styles are

“considered role models and contribute to the decision-making by providing quality

decisions based on their experience and expertise” (p. 4). Thus, the Leadership Practices

Inventory (Kouzes & Posner 1988) will be used to measure the independent variable

transformational leadership practices.

The second theory, Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) was designed by

Cooke and Lafferty (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989, and 1994) to measure behavioral norms

within organizational settings. It was used in this study to determine the culture prevalent

in an organization. The OCI is an instrument designed for cross-sectional organizational

14

research and knowledge-based cultural change initiatives, and it profiles the culture of

organizations and their sub-units in terms of behavioral norms and expectations.

The OCI evaluates three general types of styles of organizational culture: 1)

Constructive, 2) Passive-Defensive, and 3) Aggressive-Defensive (Cooke & Szumal,

1993). Each style has 4 sets of norms, each one of them is encircled by two dimensions:

1) concern for people versus concern for task, and 2) concern for satisfaction and

achievement versus concern for security (Cooke & Szumal, 1993).

Significance of the Study

The findings of this study answered many questions that higher education leaders

in the UAE have had regarding the transformational leadership practices of the academic

deans in relation to the organizational culture at the various public universities in the

UAE. Thus, a new piece of the equation surfaced, identifying the means by which deans

espouse transformational practices. Moreover, it became clearer to what extent does a

transformational leader predicts the organizational culture.

Findings from this research assist in understanding the effects of transformational

leadership of deans in the UAE as it relates to the organizational culture. While leaders

may not be able to change the organizational culture (Morgan, 1986), they can shape or

mold the culture in many ways (Schein, 1992). These leaders have a common purpose, of

serving as the voice on campus on behalf of undergraduate and graduate education,

teaching, while supporting student activities of all kinds.

To date, there has been no research published about the relationship of

transformational leadership styles of the deans and the organizational culture at the three

public universities in the UAE. Moreover, no study has been conducted about academic

15

institutions in the UAE using the LPI and OCI variables in one study. As such, this study

contributes greatly to the area of research on leadership practices of the deans at public

universities in the UAE.

It has been well established in the literature that leadership styles predict

organizational culture. This study examined and then analyzed the relationship between

transformational leadership practices of the deans and organizational culture at public

universities in the UAE, and determined that transformational leadership practices of the

deans predicted, to certain extent, the organizational culture styles.

Institutions of higher education in the UAE need to develop well grounded leaders

in functional skills. Therefore it is important for the leaders to have knowledge of

international affairs and sensitivity to a diversity of beliefs and social forces. They need

to be aware of the impact of their personal cultural background on their leadership and

vise versa. Furthermore, it is beneficial for them to have an understanding of logistics and

be experts at liaising with groups ranging from local to foreign faculty members and

students to representatives of national and international organizations.

Expatriate deans have to adapt to the national—Emiratees—culture since the

universities are funded by the government. Moreover, deans will need to find ways to

transform their leadership and to pass on their knowledge to their faculty and staff, and to

enable them to effectively support the growing academic need in the UAE.

This study can serve as a tool for deans to evaluate their work in light of what has

been successful and unsuccessful in the past and decide how they can be more effective

in serving academic institutions in the future. This study did not find a significant

relationship between the leadership practices of the deans and the organizational culture;

16

hence, the results provide meaningful information which points to those specific

characteristics which can be assessed individually.

Limitations

There were few limitations for this study. The participants’ interest in the study

and concomitant participation may have had an unknown impact on the responses

supplied by the deans as well as the subsequent data analysis, thus limiting the

generalizability of the findings. Two participants ended their participation in the study,

while one completed one of the two surveys; hence, their information was incomplete.

One of the major limitations in this study was the choice of data collection method—

online survey. Dillman (2000) noted that online surveys do not give the researcher

control over who completes the survey, so any potential low response rate, which means

the information may not very useful or skewed. Furthermore, there may be some degree

of limitation in the interpretation of the survey questions by deans whose first language is

not English, and due to their cultural differences. Also the ethnicity researcher being from

the Middle East may have a limitation for this study.

Nevertheless, despite these limitations, the findings of this study have created a

seminal framework from which to build on the current body of literature on leadership

and organizational culture by closely examining the specific demographic of the UAE. In

addition, this is the first study that examined the leadership practices and the

organizational culture at the public universities in the UAE.

17

Definition of Terms

In order to provide a context for understanding how the following terms were

used in this study, the operational definitions of the terms are listed below.

Term Definition

Academic Leadership

People who are in Academic Leadership are those who plan for and implement significant institutional change and the scholars whose research yields that information.

Academic Leadership supports new and recently appointed Department Chairs, Associate Deans, and other staff as they transition from accomplished faculty member to new administrative leader who may deal with academic issues.

Academic Deans Academic Deans are often in the middle leadership position between the president and the board and the college and faculty and staff. They ensure that their colleges realize university missions in terms of instruction and research. Academic Deans also transform dilemmas into decisions by cultivating academic integrity, helping faculty comprehend and negotiate their relationship between their departments and the larger university, and encouraging professional advancement.

Culture Culture refers to the system of shared beliefs, values, ethics, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that members of society or a nation use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning in formal academic and non-formal community institutions.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is defined as pattern of shared basic assumptions that the group learns as it solves its problems of external adaptation and internal integration. It is taught to new members as the correct way to perceive, think and feel in relation to those problems (Schein, 1992).

Transformational Leadership

Transformational leadership refers to leaders who inspire their employees. Leaders who are visionaries and passionate about accomplishing things and can achieve the mission of the organization. Appendix D provides a detailed description of the five transformational leadership practices.

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Summary

While the concepts of transformational leadership and organizational culture have

received significant attention from scholars and researchers in recent years, the empirical

research that demonstrates a relationship between these two concepts is limited. The only

studies which examined these two concepts focused primarily on the financial sector

(Collins & Porras, 1994; Kotter & Hasket, 1992; Lock, 2001).

Findings of a relationship between transformational leadership of deans in the

United Arab Emirates and their organizational culture adds strength to the existing body

of literature as it relates to these two concepts. Additionally, it provides a resource which

may be used to further develop an understanding of transformational academic leadership

and organizational cultural growth. The research concept map in Figure 2 guided this

study.

Figure 2. Research Concept Map

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

Overview

“No culture can live, if it attempts to be exclusive.” --Mahatma Gandhi

The review of the literature serves to support the development of a construct of

ideas and theory as they relate to areas within this study. The foci of the literature are (1)

Organizational Culture, (2) Transformation Leadership, and (3) Leadership Practices of

the Deans in the United Arab Emirates.

Culture is a pervasive concept that is not easily encompassed in any one

definition. Anthropologist Clifford Geertz (1973) claimed that the problem with studying

culture is that it often too broadly defined and much too eclectic in nature. Thus, a culture

within an organization is both a process and a product. According to Schein (1992),

culture defines leadership and that the organization can be understood through its culture:

“Culture affects the extent to which and the way in which societies achieve or fail to achieve progress in economic development and political democratization. Ever since the concept of Organizations and Culture was broached as an important element in understanding Organizations, companies have been looking for the right kind of culture and have been hiring consultants to foster or install those cultures.” (Schein, 1996, p. 131-136).

Leadership is applicable to all facets of life and organizations, and a competency

that leaders can learn to expand their perspectives, set the context of their goals,

understand the dynamics of employees’ behavior and take the initiative to get to where

the organization needs to be. Leadership is about empowering the other, and can be

characterized as a set of qualities attributed to leaders who can successfully employ them

(Jago, 1982). Leadership also “revolves around vision, ideas, direction, and has more to

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do with inspiring people as to direction and goals than with day-to-day implementation”

(Bennis, 1989, p. 139).

According to Maxwell (1998), leadership is about influence, relationships, and

connections among individuals that permit collective, collaborative thinking and action.

This literature review will probe leadership practices to gain insight on its relationship to

organizational culture. In addition, the literature review will examine how the leadership

of the deans may predict the organizational culture at public universities in the United

Arab Emirates. Finally the literature reviewed and evaluated the independent and

dependent variables in regards to their theoretical and conceptual definitions, leadership

implications, and research support.

Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is considered the common assumptions and the value

system, by which members of the organization use to view their interaction with each

others and with their organizational environment. The idiom “organizational culture”

entered academic literature in the late 1970s and was introduced by Pettigrew (1979),

who believed that “cultures can be shaped to suit strategic ends” (p. 570-581). He

asserted that “organizations have the capacity to transform themselves from within” (p.

570-581). Schein (1992) suggests that organizational culture has become more important

than it was in the past. Because organizational culture is about assumptions and shared

values that assist in defining experiences that are important to maximizing the value of

employees, which requires a culture that promotes participation across organizational

units. Moreover, organizational culture provides the mean for its members to make sense

of their experiences (Ashfort & Mael, 1989). A strong assumption of the culture of the

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organization may help explain why its members exhibit “mysterious, silly, or irrational”

behavior which may be perfectly viewed as normal internally, but it may be viewed

differently by those outside the organization (Schein, 1985, p. 21).

Organizational culture is a phenomenon that is based on shared conjectures,

values, and beliefs (Schein, 1999); often leaders learn about these characteristics as they

solve external and internal problems within their organization. In addition, leaders share

their collective knowledge to reach a common goal and to accomplish things that may be

otherwise impossible individually. Variation of leaders’ personal culture and

characteristics may vary, which can be due to interrelated and different layers.

Moreover, organizational culture can be defined as the underlying values,

attitudes, and beliefs that may be evident in the symbols and myths of an organization, as

well as by the actions and behaviors of its employees (Schein, 1985). Haslett, Geis, and

Carter (1992) asserted, “do not underestimate the importance of the culture of the

organization” (p. 220); while Gerrard and Goldberg (1995) commented that the

organizational culture is powerful influence and may affect almost every facet of the

organization. In addition, organizational culture and leadership impact each other, and a

culture that aligns itself with the mission and vision of the academic institution produces

more successful leaders (Deal and Kennedy, 1982). In order for leaders to apprehend the

behavior of an organization or to passably predict its future actions, leaders need to have

deep understanding of the underlying issues and assumptions that constitute the concept

of organizational culture (Schein, 1999).

Schein emphasizes on the importance of organizational culture because it is the

property of a group, and that:

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…it is a powerful, latent, and often unconscious set of forces that determine both our individual and collective behavior, ways of perceiving, thought patterns, and values. Organizational culture in particular matters because cultural elements determine strategy, goals, and modes of operating. The values and thought patterns of leaders and senior managers are partially determined by their own cultural backgrounds and their shared experience. If we want to make organizations more efficient and effective, then we must understand the role that culture plays in organizational life (1999, p. 14).

In general, organizations are collective of people who come together to achieve

collectively what cannot be accomplished individually. Therefore, organizational cultures

are influenced by a variety of social and personal processes that gradually develop over

time and in relations to environmental uncertainties and differences (Barnard, 1938).

Trice and Beyer described these environmental influences of the cultural development as:

“…[the] substance of an organization’s culture resides in its ideologies, which are emotionalized, shared sets of beliefs, values, and norms that both impel people to action and justify their actions to themselves and others. Cultures have multiple ideologies; the ideas they express sometimes complement and sometimes contradict each other. Some of the ideologies in organizations are imported from at least six levels of their environments: transnational systems, nations, regions and communities, industries, occupations, and other organizations.” (1993, p. 75-76).

Many researchers have indicated that culture affects the leadership practices of

the leader, organizational culture, and other members of the organization (Kuh & Whitt,

1988). Culture is best understood from the point of view of the objective observer,

investigating individual acts within the context of a social system (Kuh & Whitt, 1988,

and Schein, 1985). Trice and Beyer also indicated that individual behaviors might be

influenced often by conflicting cultures, subcultures and cultural values. Figure 3

provides a graphic representation of the nature of culture as well as the interrelationships

between varying layers that can be complementary or contradictory depending on the

communities and organizations to which an individual belongs (Hatch, 1997).

23

Figure 3. Levels of Analysis In Relation to the Concept of Organizational Culture

Adapted from Mary Jo Hatch, Organization Theory: Modern, Symbolic, and Postmodern Perspectives, New York: Oxford University, 1997, p. 227.

National Culture & Higher Education

Higher education global trends in the UAE have indicated that there is a definite

need for the status quo in education (Caldwell, 2003). Research indicates that education

is one of the important steps towards building a strong workforce in any country (Cuban,

2001), and the government can play a role in aspiring and providing a high quality

learning environment, ultimately strengthening the community at large (Friedman, 1962).

In the UAE, 90 percent of current college graduates have been educated in traditional

government academic institutions that are directed by government policies (Al-

Rostamani, 2004), where the national culture has an impact on the academic

organizational culture.

The UAE is a blend of many cultures, Arabic, Islamic and Western. Initially the

UAE culture was influenced by the British during the 150 years of colonization, and later

by pan-Arabism. According to Wilkinson (2006), the UAE continues to be a blend of the

past and the present; the culture has “evolved from a deep-rooted belief in Islam, which is

more than just a religion. It is a total way of life, which governs every activity and

decision that is made in daily life”.

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At the start of 2004, the total population of the UAE, including expatriates,

reached approximately four million (UAE Interact, 2004), with Emiratis—indigenous

people—compromising nine percent of the total UAE workforce (Employment and

Human Resource Report, 2004). Due to the infancy of the federation of the country and

its wealth, the UAE has been blessed with an outstanding position to foster economic and

academic growth that yields prosperity, security and stability, as noted by Al-Nahayan

(2006).

National Culture, Personal Culture, and Organizational Culture

Researchers have recently given attention to the potential that individuals may

have an impact on their organizational culture (Conner, 1993), something that arises from

and is shared by all the members of an organization (Schein, 1992). Merriam Webster’s

Dictionary defines culture generally as “the integrated pattern of human knowledge,

belief, and behavior that depends upon man’s capacity for learning and transmitting

knowledge to succeeding generations” (2005). Thus a key aspect of a culture is its ability

to pass on knowledge and shared competencies with members of the organization

(Deering, Dilts, and Russell, 2003). Because culture is shared and exchanged, “it can

remain influential long after its creator has been forgotten” (Deering et al., 2003, p. 2).

Thus, personal culture as well as organizational culture can impact the steering of the

organizations for many years to come.

Organizations are living social organisms, and “organizational culture is more

powerful than anything else” (Kotter & Heskett 1992, p. 2). They are a group of people

with a mission (Putman, 1990), not machines. Yet, the organizations may have machine-

like characteristics and serve the needs of their employees (De Geus, 1997). Furthermore,

25

organizations exist to fulfill their mission and to contribute to the larger world around

them.

National culture is a shared understanding that stems from different values,

beliefs, attitudes, and ethics that ply the foundation for the heritage of a country

(Connerley & Pedersen, 2005). Although national culture is a shared understanding,

individuals within a country may have a wide range of beliefs and opinions about their

country (Gardenswartz, Rowe, Digh, & Bennett, 2003). According to Lok and Crawford

(2003), national culture has “impact on certain demographic, leadership, and

organizational culture” (p. 3350.

Personal culture is the shared combination of an individual’s traits, skills, and

personality formed within the context of his or her ethnic, racial, familial, and educational

background (Gardenswartz et al., 2003). Therefore, every individual has a unique

personal culture, and differences in culture can significantly affect leadership practices

(Kluckhohn & Strodtbeck, 1961).

Organizational culture is a combination of shared initial beliefs, values, and the

guiding philosophy of the organization that is usually stated in its mission and vision

statements (Gardenswartz et al., 2003). The organizational culture allows individuals to

view their organization differently. These varied views are aligned with the individuals’

personal culture (Connerley & Pedersen, 2005). Thus, culture is acquired and is based on

individual beliefs, attitudes and values gained from the individual’s environment.

Furthermore, the culture of the organization is gained from the environment common to

its members, and both the internal and external environment can influence the culture. In

addition, organizational culture may affect the conscious and subconscious decisions that

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people within the organization make, and ultimately they way they perceive, think and

act (Hansen & Wernerfelt, 1989; and Schein, 1990).

As with leaders, deans at various universities in the UAE to be effective leaders,

they need to have an understanding of their personal cultural impact on their leadership

and the organizational culture. According to Brinbaum (1988), effective administrators

understand and respect the indigenous campus culture. Moreover, Bass and Avolio

(1993) suggested that the relationship between leadership and culture is intertwined and it

is an ongoing process in which the leader impacts the organizational culture; in return,

organizational culture affects the leadership practices of the leader. Figure 4 illustrates

the relationship between national, personal, and organizational culture.

National Culture

Personal Culture

OrganizationalCulture

Figure 4. Relationships of National, Personal, and Organizational Culture

Based on Schein, E. (1985-2005). Organizational Culture and Leadership, 3rd Ed.

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Leaders and Culture

Culture is an instrument wielded by professors to manufacture professors, who when their turn comes will manufacture professors.

--Simone Weil

Culture and leadership are colligated; while leaders create culture in the early

stages of an organization, culture also creates leaders as an organization matures

suggesting that culture is deep, broad, and stable (Schein, 1985). Kilmann (1985)

supports a hierarchical prescriptive of culture creation, where the guiding principles of

culture are set at the top transmitted down through the ranks. Schein (1985) and Allen

(1985), have also similar view of culture as the on going recreation of shared meanings.

According to Kilmann (1985), there are at least two things can be learned by

understanding what sustains culture: 1) the impact of a group can be powerful, if the

group is cohesive; and 2) if the cultural norms are supportive of the mission of the

organization, the efforts of the members continue to generate high performances.

Culture is within each person (Gardenswartz et al., 2003), and it is combined with

ones’ learned competencies. With the thousands of people living and working in the

UAE, there are abundant opportunities for enhancing cultural awareness. Leaders in

foreign societies often learn to adjust their leaderships more profoundly and effectively

than they realize. They also learn to respond in unique ways to unfamiliar situations and

come up with solutions without always being aware of their own adjustment process.

Thus, differences in culture may affect the leadership practices (Kluckhohn &

Strodtbeck, 1961).

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Transformational Leadership

“If you want to move people, it has to be toward a vision that’s positive for them, that taps important values, that gets them something they desire, and it has to be presented in a compelling way that they feel

inspired to follow.” -- Dr. Martin Luther King

Transformational leadership often starts with the development of a vision, where

leaders build the trust, and guide the way for their employees. Burns (1978) defined

transformational leadership as a process in which both leaders and followers believe in

inspiring and uplifting one another to higher levels of moral ethics and motivation.

Moreover, transformational leadership is the practice that discovers the values that are

mutually held by both leaders and followers; it is also about intellectual stimulation and

individual consideration among all constituents (Burns, 1987; Kouzes and Posner, 1996).

Transformational leadership is differentiated from other leadership styles for its

emphasis on moral leadership. For example, a transformational leader leads with an

ethical philosophy and gives the organization its ultimate measure of worth and satisfies

the needs and aspirations of the organization’s constituents (Bass & Steidlmeier, 1999).

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The five key descriptors for leadership practices defined by Kouzes and Posner

(1995) incorporate the five practices of transformational leadership:

Term Definition

Challenging the Process

Refer to the ability of the leader to question the status quo and to motivate and initiate changes.

Inspiring a Shared Vision

Requires that leaders make their full potential and to create a shared vision for the future that is inspiring to all employees and constituents.

Enabling Others to Act

Refers to leaders who create opportunities, foster collaboration, build trust and provide education and choices to their employees; 4) modeling the way, when the leaders take every opportunity to lead by example an how they make the vision valuable and tangible.

Enabling Others to Act

Refers to leaders who create opportunities, foster collaboration, build trust and provide education and choices to their employees; 4) modeling the way, when the leaders take every opportunity to lead by example an how they make the vision valuable and tangible.

Encouraging the Heart

Refers to recognizing and supporting all employees, which demonstrates apperceptions that builds higher morale.

Academic Deans as Transformational Leaders

“If you stop learning today, you stop leading tomorrow.” --Howard Hendricks

In higher education, effective leadership is imperative to a university’s success.

University presidents rely heavily on deans and other administrators to provide internal

leadership (Birnbaum, 1992). Previous researchers explored this topic by asking

academics to name those whom they felt were important leaders on their campuses. Forty

four percent of the respondents named the dean. In general, deans are mentioned more

frequently than other leaders, including the presidents (Birnbaum, 1992).

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Academic deans, as members of the president’s cabinet, are in a unique position

to share leadership responsibility for the institution as a whole. The deans acquire a broad

understanding of university concerns while remaining involved in the teaching and

learning process of the institution. Furthermore, deans play a critical role in building the

university vision: not only do they “…predict the future like futurists, but they create a

new future like science fiction writers”, as well as “plan and design how the dreamed

future will be realized” (Baskan & Ercetin, 2000, p. 2).

In addition, academic deans have resources that can be used to guide and direct

the work of the faculty. Moreover, deans can influence decision-making, shape a

curriculum, and play a major role in the culture of the university. Deans can also act as

change agents, but first they need to be experts in the change process to transform their

organization from its current state to the ideal one (Huffman-Joley, 1992).

Leadership succession at the senior executive level of university often is driven by

institutional policies, which are often influenced by the individuals throughout the

organization to reflect their interests and values (Baldridge, Curtis, Ecker, & Riley,

1991). To that extent, “leadership skills necessary for today’s educational leaders are

difficult” (Huffman-Joley, 1992, p. 7). For instance, deans may need to give up their

power without losing control by persuading others and enforcing the university policies;

and take initiative by listening to members within their organization. Researchers such as,

Baskan and Ercetin (2000) asserted that, “deans have an important potential role in

sustaining the learner-centered and learning universities of the 21st century” (p. i).

Leaders need to be visionaries and able to see beyond the horizon, have sensitivity to the

31

needs of their employees, and build an organization that is capable of transforming its

vision and towards improvement and growth (Knauft, Berger, & Gray, 1991).

United Arab Emirates National Culture and Higher Education

Education is an essential element in achieving the progress of society. It is mandatory in the elementary stage and free for all stage.”

-- UAE Constitution, Article 17

Education comports a high social premium and brings about economic benefits to

both the individual and society, particularly in developing countries. According to

Weisskopf, Reich and Edwards (1973), socialization of youth in is a key educational

function in prevailing the culture. Moreover, academic institutions integrate individuals

into society through institutionalizing constructive values, norms and belief systems. On

the other hand, the organizations provide individual competencies that are necessary to

meet the performance of social roles (Weisskopf, Reich and Edwards, 1972). These

educational systems are key to the stability and functioning of any society. Therefore,

education is the process by which society ensures the transmission of the necessary

knowledge, skills, and values for survival to the next generation.

The government of the UAE supports all academic institutions from primary level

to university (Saunders & Quirke, 2002). In the past 35 years the government has

invested money, resources, human and technical, in the creation of an institution of

higher education. In 1977, with the opening of the first public university, UAE

University, it became possible for the first time for UAE citizens, male and female, to

complete their full education within the country’s borders (Al-Adhab, 1992).

In addition to the fully-fledged public educational system, there are also many

private schools including universities which accounts for approximately forty percent of

the student population (UAE Education and Youth, 2006). In the UAE many

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schoolteachers, university professors, and academic deans are expatriates, possibly due to

need for global thinkers and educators to educate the Emiratees’ students; in addition,

many children of UAE wealthy families are educated in the USA or Europe (Economist

Intelligence Unit, 2002). Furthermore, in the 1980s approximately 25 percent of UAE

national students were educated abroad, and the tendency to educate young people abroad

has been perceived as undermining efforts to promote a sense of national identity.

There are many academic leaders including deans from different countries and

cultural backgrounds leading and shaping the academic institutions in the UAE.

Although, the UAE has seen an increase in scholarly research, it still has a low profile in

research about deanship, leadership, and organizational culture, likely due to the infancy

of the federation and the diversion and excessive attention given to the petroleum and

development of the country (UAE Interact, 2006).

The United Arab Emirates Ministry of Education

“The wealth of any nation is its intellectuals and the progress of peoples and nations is judged by the level and extend of education they reach.”

Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, UAE Former President

While only on the brink of the thirty five years of its existence as an independent

nation, the Ministry of Education of the UAE has made remarkable progress in

establishing a strong and multidimensional higher education system to serve its students,

equally to male and female students, assisting them in acquiring the knowledge and skills

they need to compete and lead globally (UAE Interact, 2006). Furthermore, the Ministry

of Education of the UAE has a department that focuses only on higher education,

providing higher educational scholarships to distinctive students, and sending them

abroad to specialize in academic fields that are mostly required for the country

development. For example, the Ministry of Education has an office in Washington, D.C.

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to assist and guide UAE students by introducing them to accredited higher education

institutions, verifying all the degrees and certificates, and arranging for their equivalency

in the United States of America. Moreover, the Office of Higher Education assists

students with their decision-making and helps them facilitate a smooth transfer from

secondary to higher educational level to ensure the academic success of their students.

The Ministry of Education of the UAE supports three major higher educational

organizations: United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), Higher Colleges of Technology

(HCT), and Zayed University (ZU).

United Arab Emirates University

“Education is like a lantern that lights up your way in a dark alley.” --Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, UAE Former President

The United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) was established in 1976 in Al Ain.

The late President, Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahayan, envisioned the UAEU as a

federal institution of an Arab-Islamic identity, with a focus of intellect, culture, and

science. His goal for the UAEU was for it to become a leading and pioneering institution

in the Arab region in education, research, and community service.

In 1976, the UAEU had four colleges. Currently the university has nine colleges:

College of Humanities and Social Science, College of Sciences, College of Education,

College of Business and Economics, College of Shari’ah & Law, College of Food

Systems, College of Engineering, College of Information Technology, and College

Medicine & Health Science. The university’s mission states:

“…to meet the educational and cultural needs of the UAE society by providing programs and services of the highest quality. Its mission is to realize the aspirations of the society, deepen its ambitions, and consolidate its foundations. It is to be a vital and effective organ in the structure of the Union, contributing significantly to the development of its modern country and utilizing its potential resources; its people, heritage, values, economic

34

resources and system. It contributes to the expansion of knowledge by conducting quality research and by developing and applying modern information technology. It plays a significant role in leading cultural, social and economic development in the country” (UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, 2006). The UAEU offers approximately seventy undergraduate bachelor degrees, and

four graduate programs. The university’s intent is to meet international accreditation in

all academic programs (UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research,

2006). The UAEU is currently focusing on recruiting highly qualified administrators,

such as deans and faculty members from the USA to help them carry out the accreditation

work (UAE Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, 2006).

Higher Colleges of Technology

“We strive to develop graduates who are prepared for the future, ready for the changing needs of the work place, and trained for a life of ongoing

learning and professional success.” Sheikh Nahyan Mabarak Al Nahyan, HCT Chancellor

The Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) was established in 1988. Over the

years, HCT earned a reputation of a leader in education in the UAE, and expanded

rapidly while consistently maintaining a commitment to excellence in teaching and

learning. Currently, HTC has twelve campuses throughout the country. At its beginning

stages, in 1992 HTC had 62 graduate students, as of 2004, the total student enrollment

was 15,627, approximately 60% of the students were women and 40% were men. HTC

mission statement states:

“The Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) are dedicated to the delivery of technical and professional programs of the highest quality to the students, within the context of sincere respect for all beliefs and values...” (UAE Higher Colleges of Technology, 2006). Throughout the years, HCT has been on the cutting edge of academic technical

research, building alliances with national and international organizations. For example, in

35

1996, The Centre of Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT) was created

to respond quickly and effectively to current needs in the regional and international work

places. Furthermore, in 1994 HCT gained international recognition from the United

Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and was awarded

the institution the Comenius Medal for Outstanding Educational Achievement (UAE

Higher Colleges of Technology, 2006).

Zayed University

“Education is the real wealth which we should preserve and care for.” -- Former First Lady, Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (2004)

Zayed University (ZU) was established in 1998 as the only public university to

educate UAE national female students. Since its establishment, the university gained a lot

of attention from the government for building academic programs that enable women to

enter the workforce. Currently ZU enrolls 3000 female students and this number is

expected to increase to 5000 (Zayed University, 2006). Zayed University is based on an

international model of higher education. It is organized academically into five colleges:

Arts and Sciences, Business Sciences, Communication and Media Sciences, Education,

and Information Systems. The primary language of instruction at ZU is English; however,

the students are expected to be fully bilingual in English and Arabic, proficient in the use

of computing technology, and strong in quantitative and research skills. Zayed

University’s mission statement states:

“Zayed University seeks to prepare Emirati students for a meaningful and successful twenty-first century personal and professional life; to graduate students who will help shape the future of the UAE; to support the economic and social advancement of the UAE; to lead innovation in higher education in the UAE through teaching, learning, research, and outreach; and to do so in a culturally diverse, humane, technologically advanced, and increasingly global environment” (Zayed University, 2006).

36

The UAE government expects Zayed University to educate students, conduct

academic research, and build stronger undergraduate programs. In addition to focusing on

the students’ successes, there is an increasing emphasis being placed on faculty research

that contributes to the national knowledge base (Zayed University, 2006).

Muslim Culture and Education in the United Arab Emirates

“God will raise all you who believe, as well as those who are given knowledge, in rank.” --Quran (58:12)

Learning and schooling are often equated. It is valued in many Islamic countries

such as UAE, because learning is part of the Muslims’ duties. According to the Quran,

and Prophet Mohamed Saying—Hadith—every Muslim should emulate and support

learning. The first verse revealed to the Prophet Mohammed is: “Read in the name of thy

Lord” (96:2). Subsequent verses mention the value of learning and knowledge, “God will

raise all you who believe, as well as those who are given knowledge, in rank” (58:12). A

famous quote of Profit Mohammed is, “Seek knowledge, though be it in China,” which

refers to distant land; therefore, according to the Prophet, seeking knowledge is an

obligation for every Muslim male and female. In addition, the Prophet also released

prisoners of war after they had taught ten Muslims how to read and write. These are some

the known indicators of the importance of learning and seeking knowledge for Muslim

people. Moreover, Islam is the main religion in the UAE, therefore government agencies

and leaders at all levels follow the Islamic laws regarding education (Saunders & Quirke,

2002). Moreover, according to the Quran (35:28, 58:12, & 96:2) and Prophet Mohamed,

every Muslim, male and female, should support learning and the quest for knowledge is

considered an obligation.

37

Summary

The United Arab Emirates invests heavily in the education of its young citizens,

knowing that education is the key to future prosperity and advancement in an

increasingly globalized economy. The UAE offers free education for all citizens at every

level. The majority of UAE students attend public school, while a small percentage go to

private schools and those who excel in their studies may receive scholarships from the

government to continue their graduate study abroad. Moreover, according to the

UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report (2006), the UAE is one of 15

countries where girls outnumber boys in the formal education system, and with gender

parity index (GPI) of 1.12. Furthermore, in the Gulf region, the UAE is one of two

countries where the education balance is tipped in favor of girls.

The faculty members in the UAE public universities are holders of doctorate

degrees from accredited institutions. The academic titles of faculty are Professor,

Associate Professor and Lecturer. The latter is equivalent to the title of Assistant

Professor in American universities.

To understand the relationship between the leadership practices of the deans and

their organizational culture in the public universities in the UAE, one needs to understand

the history and national culture of the country. At the start of 2004, the total population of

the UAE, including expatriates, reached approximately four million (UAEInteract, 2004),

with Emiratees—native—comprising nine percent of the total UAE workforce, while two

percent of them were unemployed, according to the National Human Resource

Development and Employment Authority (2004).

38

Due to the infancy of the federation, the majority of leaders in the UAE and in

particular in the academic organizations are expatriates. Several researchers have studied

the relationship between leadership styles and organizational culture, yet few have

studied the role of deans as academic leaders and the relationship of their leadership

styles to organizational culture. Furthermore, no research has been done on academic

deanship in the Middle East, particularly in one of the most developed and fast growing

countries, the UAE. This research attempted to do so.

39

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

Restatement of the Purpose

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between

transformational leadership practices of the deans and the perceived organizational

culture of public universities in the UAE. Additionally, the study assessed to what degree

the decisions and leadership practices of the deans are predictive of the universities’

organizational culture, which in some instances may be driven from the national Arabic

and Muslim culture.

Research Design

The mixed method research design of this study employed two different survey

instruments, the Leadership Practice Inventory (LPI) measuring the independent

variables, transformational leadership practices, and Organizational Culture Inventory

(OCI) measuring the dependent variables, behavioral norms within organizational

settings. In addition a qualitative research conducted by phone interviews was employed

to strengthen the quantitative data.

The survey instruments, LPI and OCI, were combined in a two part survey and

used to generate data to answer the research questions. The LPI and OCI online

instruments were delivered electronically at the three different public universities in the

United Arab Emirates, United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), Higher Colleges of

Technology (HCT) and Zayed University (ZU) during August and October of 2006. The

data collected were analyzed quantitatively to address the research questions. The entire

40

population of academic deans holding leadership positions was asked to complete a two-

part survey, which includes the LPI and the OCI.

The quantitative data analysis measured the correlation between transformational

leadership practices of the deans and their perceived organizational culture at public

universities in the United Arab Emirates, and also determined to what extent leadership

practices of the deans can predict the organizational culture. Analysis of variance

(ANOVA), t tests, and Pearson Correlation Coefficients were used to examine gender

differences, tenure, and nationality as they relate to the transformational leadership

practices of the deans and their organizational culture.

In addition, a series of qualitative questions (see Appendix K) was designed and

used to enrich and deepen the data. Two deans from each university who completed the

online quantitative surveys answered the qualitative questions. Data were gathered via

telephone interview. The use of qualitative methodology created the opportunity to

provide a detailed and vivid account of the deans and their leadership practices in relation

to their organizational culture. While the quantitative survey gave breadth to the data, the

qualitative questions gave depth to the data.

Research question one is: to what extent do deans at the public universities in the

United Arab Emirates practice the five transformational leadership practices, challenging,

inspiring, enabling, modeling, and encouraging? Five leadership practice variables from

the LPI instrument were analyzed, as shown in table 2. The five leadership practices each

corresponds with six statements. The corresponding statements were measured using a

five-point Likert scale with higher values indicating greater demonstration of leadership

practice. For additional information see Appendix I.

41

Table 2 Transformational Leadership Practices and Corresponding Statements

Leadership Practice Corresponding Statement Numbers

Challenging the Process 1, 6, 11, 16, 21, 26,

Inspiring a Shared Vision 2, 7, 12, 17, 22, 27

Enabling Others to Act 3, 8, 13, 18, 23, 28

Modeling the Way 4, 9, 14, 19, 24, 29

Encouraging the Heart 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30

Research question two is: what are the perceptions of the deans of their

organizational culture at the public universities in the United Arab Emirates? The

following variables Constructive, Passive/Defensive, and Aggressive/Defensive from the

OCI instrument were analyzed, see appendix C. The OCI produces a score for each of the

three variables. It is expected to see each of these three styles in any organization, but one

of these will be the prevalent organizational culture.

Research question three is: to what extent does the transformational leadership of

the deans predict the constructive organizational culture at the various public universities

in the United Arab Emirates? A multiple regression analysis looked at the contribution of

all the transformational leadership practices scores to predict each of the three OCI

scores, as illustrated in Figure 5 below.

42

Constructive Style

Passive/Defensive Style

Aggressive/Defensive Style

TransformationalLeadership

1

2

3

Figure 5. Regression Analysis of LPI and Individual OCI Style

Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) by Kouzes and Posner (1995), and Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) by Cooke and Lafferty (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989).

Research question four is: what is the relationship between individual

transformational leadership practices of the deans and the types of organizational culture

at public universities in the United Arab Emirates? The variables that were analyzed are

the five LPI statements, and the three OCI subscales, as illustrated in Figure 6.

TransformationalLeadership

challenge the process

inspire a shared vision

enable others to act

model the way

encourage the heart

Constructive Style

Passive/Defensive Style

Aggressive/Defensive Style

1

2

3

Figure 6. Relationships Between LPI and Individual OCI Style

Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) by Kouzes and Posner (1995), and Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) by Cooke and Lafferty (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989).

Research question five is: what are the self-perceptions of the leadership practices

of the deans based on the following variables: gender, ethnic background, current

experience level, and tenure? The variables that were analyzed are five LPI leadership

43

practices, and the four demographic variables: gender, ethnic background, current

experience level, and tenure from the OCI instrument.

Population and Sample

The populations for this study consisted of academic deans at various public

universities in the United Arab Emirates who hold a critical institutional role. As

academic leaders, the deans have the authority to chart where a college and its programs

are headed (Mercer, 1997), and have an impact of the academic institution as a whole.

The data were collected from male and female deans, who have been in academic

leadership for at least 2 years. Furthermore, the ethnicity of the deans may vary; some

from the Western world (i.e., United Kingdom, United States of America, Australia), the

Middle East (i.e., Lebanon, Egypt, Palestine, Iraq), and the Far East (i.e., Iran, Pakistan,

Afghanistan). In addition, the majority of the deans are bilingual and have lived in the

UAE for a period of time. Because English is the second language in UAE public

universities, some courses are taught in Arabic, and others are taught in English.

This study invited 26 full-time participants from UAE, HCT and ZU and met the

assumptions of sample size and normality for the research method that will be used. The

population from which the sample was selected were academic deans from the three

public universities in the UAE. The entire population of deans at the three universities

does not exceed 26 (n = 26) were obtained from the provost office of each institution.

Deans from UAE, HCT and ZU were contacted by an email message sent

individually to their email addresses. Findings of this study are generalizable to these

specific populations only. Since some participants did not reply to the two emails, phone

interviews were conducted to collect additional data.

44

Profile of the Researcher

The researcher has an equal understanding of both the American and Arabic

culture, because he was born and raised in the Middle East, Lebanon, a small country

located at the eastern edge of the Mediterranean Sea. Lebanon is bordered by Syria to the

north and east, and Palestine/Israel to the south, with a narrow coastline along its western

edge. After finishing high school with honors in 1985, the researcher was granted a

scholarship to pursue his academic degrees to the United States of America. He earned

two Bachelors of Science in Mechanical Engineering & Engineering Management, and a

Minor Degree in Mathematics from Wentworth Institute of Technology, Boston, MA in

1990 and 1991 respectively. He received his Master of Science Administration with focus

on Innovation Process from Boston University, Boston, MA in 1993. The researcher is a

doctoral student in the Organization and Leadership program at the School of Education

at University of San Francisco.

In the mid 1990’s, the researcher taught at Mount Ida College and Aquinas

College (Newton, MA). He has been teaching at the University of San Francisco in the

Mathematics department and Computer Science department since 2001. He also authored

multiple articles in different universities’ newspapers about the experiences of

international students working in the American corporate world. Prior to his teaching

career, he worked in Silicon Valley as a technical consultant in the areas of curriculum

development, online solutions, building train-the-trainer programs (TTT), and project

management for many large corporations some of which are S1, Learn iT!, The GAP,

Hewlett Packard, Cirrus Logic, IDT, and California Department of Health Services -

Office of Multicultural Health.

45

The researcher has broad knowledge base as it relates to organizational culture

and leadership. He has held leadership positions in the corporate world and most recently

he has been a university educator. In the past 5 years the researcher traveled to the

Middle East and made various site visits to several universities, in the UAE, Egypt and

Lebanon. Since then, he has done extensive research about leadership, culture, and

organizational culture in the Arab world. The researcher’s national background as

Lebanese American allowed him to build strong ties with various academic organizations

in the USA and the Middle East. Those experiences coupled with his national background

have enabled him to have a better understanding of the organizational culture of higher

education in the Middle East, society as a whole, and the various leadership styles in all

aspects of organizations.

The researcher’s interests in transformational leadership rooted in his belief that

academic leadership has a local impact on transforming any society, building bridges to

world peace and advancing global corporate systems. He views academic leadership as

the driving force that can inspire people to become leaders themselves. As such, his

interest in transformational leadership and the various attributes that it is associated with

emphasize the relevance of delving into these practices of leadership, while examining if

deanship styles predict the organizational culture of their universities.

Protection of Human Subjects

Approval to conduct this research was granted by the Institutional Review Board

for the Protection of Human Subjects at the University of San Francisco. The collection

of data posed a minimum risk to subjects. Survey responses remain confidential and all

personal information is permanently stored only by the researcher. A copy of the

46

approval letter can be found in Appendix L and in the Dean’s office at the School of

Education.

Instrumentation

Two separate quantitative survey instruments were required to accomplish this

study: The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 1988) was used to

measure the independent variables, transformational leadership practices; and the

Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) (Cooke & Lafferty, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1989,

1994, 2003) was used to measure the dependent variable, organizational culture. A few

studies used the two instruments together, the latest of which is a dissertation by Kubus

Lock (2001), which investigated the relationship between transformational leadership and

constructive organizational culture; table 3 illustrates Lock’s finding.

Table 3 Transformational Leadership and Perceived Constructive Organizational Culture Transformational Leadership Styles

Constructive r at p = .01 R2

Passive/ Defensive

Aggressive/ Defensive

Challenging .486 .275 N/A N/A

Inspiring .485 N/A N/A N/A

Enabling .498 .248 N/A N/A

Modeling .468 N/A N/A N/A

Encouraging .453 N/A N/A N/A

Total r .522 N/A N/A N/A

Result of a dissertation study by Kubus Lock (2001), An Investigation of the Relationship Between Transformational Leadership and Constructive Organizational Culture.

47

In addition, a series of qualitative questions (see Appendix K) was designed and

used to enrich and deepen the data. As such, qualitative methods are interactive and

humanistic according to Rossman and Rallis (1998). The interactive and humanistic

characteristics of qualitative methodology allow people who are often silenced to have an

opportunity to share their narrative and to have a voice.

Leadership Practices Inventory

The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) by Kouzes and Posner (1988) was used

in this study to measure the independent variable, transformational leadership practices.

The LPI instrument approaches leadership as a measurable, learnable, and teachable set

of behaviors. This leadership assessment tool helps individuals and organizations

measure their leadership competencies. In addition, it allows for continuously testing the

initial findings of the five practices model of the world of leadership, and it provides a

tool to help leaders assess the extent to which they actually use those practices so that

they can make plans for improvement (Kouzes & Posner, 1993).

Validity

Kouzes and Posner (1995) conducted an extensive study to explore the daily

attitudes and behaviors of exemplary leaders in a variety of settings at all levels of

institutions. The authors collected about 550 surveys, each requiring one to two hours of

reflection and expression; they also collected 80 short surveys from a group of managers,

and then conducted an additional 42 in-depth interviews. The preliminary data collection,

in addition to the thousands of additional cases accumulated over the years, lead Kouzes

and Posner to identify five practices fundamental to effective leadership and common to

48

most leadership achievements. Appendix D contains has the definitions of the five

transformational leadership practices.

Reliability

Kouzes and Posner (1993) used 2,876 managers and their subordinates to

investigate the reliability and validity of the Leadership Practices Inventory. This group

was selected from international and national companies, public and private, and from

several disciplines; both genders were represented. According to Kouzes and Posner

(1995), the Psychometrics for the LPI-Other included an internal reliability, Cronbach

alphas, ranging from 0.82 to 0.92.

Organizational Culture Inventory

The Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) was designed by Cooke and Lafferty

(1983, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1994, and 2003) to measure behavioral norms within

organizational settings. The OCI instrument was used in this study to determine the

perceived culture prevalent in the organizations. This instrument is designed for cross-

sectional organizational research and knowledge-based cultural change initiatives, and it

profiles the culture of organizations and their sub-units in terms of behavioral norms and

expectations. In addition, this instrument measures how employees perceive their

organization’s existing culture. Although the instrument was originally designed for

organizational change and development purposes (Cooke, 1989; Jablonski, 1990), it has

been used with increasing frequency for research on the cultures of many different types

of organization, one of which is educational systems (Cocchiola, 1990).

49

The OCI evaluates three types of perceived organizational culture: 1)

Constructive, 2) Passive/Defensive, and 3) Aggressive/Defensive (Cooke & Szumal,

1993), as they are illustrated in Table 4 and Figure 7.

Table 4 Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) Culture Styles and Subscales

Culture Style Subscales (Norms)

Example of Survey Statements That Resemble Actual OCI Questions

Constructive Achievement Strive to achieve high quality Accomplish their own goals Seek challenges Generate creative options

Self-Actualizing Develop plan for professional growth Take calculated risks Innovate Delight in what they do

Humanistic-Encouraging

Be empathetic to others Collaborate in decision making Support the development of others Treat others with respect

Affiliative Be amiable and warm toward coworkers Be considerate of others Keep the goals of the group paramount Use excellent interpersonal skills

Passive/ Defensive

Approval Work to gain acceptance into the group Always be agreeable Set goals that make others happy Always support the highest level “boss”

Conventional Do what is expected Never challenge policies rules, and producers Avert discussions about disagreements Consider only safe solutions

Dependent Do what they are told, even if they disagree Refrain from making suggestions to superiors Don’t ask questions that could appear challenging to superiors

50

Culture Style Subscales (Norms)

Example of Survey Statements That Resemble Actual OCI Questions Run all decision past their manager

Avoidance Always make decisions that will be received favorably Try not to take a stand on issues Avoid risks Let others act first; stay uninvolved if possible

Aggressive/ Defensive

Oppositional Be critical of others Resist new ideas Be hard to please Stay detached from circumstances

Power Maintain a strong authority position Be in-charge of as much as possible Always be firm Play the political game well

Competitive Always be number “1” Oppose peers rather than work with them Act as if they are superior to others make the job as competitive as possible

Perfectionistic They take care of all details without help Be sure everything is done flawlessly Appear self-assured Devise very high standards and goals

Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) by Cooke and Lafferty (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1994) Plymouth, Michigan, USA: Human Synergistics. Copy right 1989 by Human Synergistics, Inc.

OCI results based ion all the above forms are presented on a statistically normed

profile called a circumplex. When the total or raw scores for the 12 cultural norms are

transferred to the circumplex, they are converted to percentile scores based on the

distributions of raw scores for approximately 600 respondents from similar organizations

in the OCI database. The industries represented in this sample include heavy and high-

51

tech manufacturing, banking insurance, telecommunications, education, healthcare,

consulting and social services. Cooke and Lafferty (1994).

Figure 7. Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) Circumplex

The OCI Circumplex provides a method for displaying the scores from the OCI. From Organizational Culture Inventory by R.A. Cooke and J.C. Lafferty, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1989, Plymouth, MI: Human Synergistics. Copyright 1989 by Human Synergistics, Inc. Adapted by permission.

52

The collected data were plotted on the OCI Circumplex shown in figure 7. The

Circumplex provides a method for displaying the scores from the OCI within the

framework of the normative responses of universities. This method allows for converting

raw scores into percentile scores and will provide a better understanding of the

organizational culture for each university. As figure 7 shows, the OCI Circumplex is

divided in to three factors, each has four styles. The center point of the Circumplex is the

first percentile, and the outer ring represents the highest the 99th percentile. Between the

two there are five rings that represent the 10th, 25th, 50, 75th and 90th percentile scores

(Cooke and Lafferty, 1983, 1986, 1987, 1989).

Validity

According to Cooke and Szumal (1993), construct validity analyses identified a

three-factor solution, constructive, aggressive-defensive, and passive-defensive, which

together accounts for 65% to 72.9% of the variance in scale responses. Furthermore,

while organizational cultures have elements of all three of these structures, the factor that

has the highest score is the predominate type of culture in the organization.

Reliability

A comparison study of four widely used culture inventories (Xenikou & Furham,

1996) determined that the OCI is the most internally reliable measure of organizational

culture. They found that coefficients of internal reliability for the 12 subscales, ranged

from 0.60 to 0.95 while the coefficients on the four secondary subscales; people

orientation, task orientation, satisfaction needs, and security needs, ranged from 0.89 to

0.95. Cooke and Szumal (1993) also reported sound psychometrics for the OCI includes

53

Cronbach alphas ranging from 0.65 to 0.95 in several studies and across various groups in

different types of organizations including academic institutions.

Quantitative Online Surveys

The LPI and OCI online surveys were used as the method to collect the data for

many advantages. Because the data were collected from overseas, ground mailing is

expensive and the process may take a longer time due to many circumstances. It has been

found in a variety of disciplines that the Internet is a fruitful way to conduct survey

research. It is suggested that online surveys can be used as a valuable cost effective

means of distribution to access more people at a lower cost and in less time (Fielden &

Garrido, 1998; Dillman, 2000). In addition, online surveys have a more refined

appearance and could include many interactive features and directions that may facilitate

the process for participants and make it more appealing to complete the survey (Dillman,

2000).

During quantitative data collection for the study, subjects were emailed their

information, and reminded once after two weeks, and again after one month. The

numbers of contacts with the participants were three times within a period of one month.

The subjects did not wish to be contacted, they unsubscribed from the researcher’s

emailing list.

The researcher closed the online surveys on October 31, 2006, retrieved all

completed online surveys from the LPI and OCI research organizations and compiled the

data in Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (Nie, Hadlai, Hull, & Bent, 1968) on

November 3, 2006.

54

Qualitative Phone Interview

Due to the small number of responses (n = 11) to the online quantitative surveys,

a series of qualitative questions (see Appendix K) were designed to strengthen and

deepen the finding. Systematic review of qualitative literature was employed, in addition

to telephone interviews and questionnaires, to allow for triangulation of the data.

Telephone interview was the research method used to collect the data, according to

Sturges (2004), telephone interviews can be used productively in qualitative research.

Later, the data were transcribed for further review and analysis.

Data were collected from in-depth, open-ended interviews, and included informal

conversations, and organizational documents such as job descriptions of deans. The

researcher coordinated with each dean a convenient date and time for the phone

interview. Once these dates and times were established between the researcher and

participants, a follow-up email confirming the times and dates was sent to all research

participants.

An attempt was made to conduct interviews in a quiet setting. Interviews were

digitally recorded and last for a half to an hour. The researcher also took notes during the

interviews. All interviews were conducted and transcribed in English. The researcher sent

interview transcripts to the participant to validate the authenticity of the interview and to

allow the participant to correct any misrepresentation of their comments or add

something they may have thought of after the interview took place. The researcher made

make any changes the participant requested and sent them a final transcript for approval.

The second form of data collection was gathering a job description of deans from

various public universities in the UAE. The collection of documents helped identify

55

certain things that were not answered clearly in the quantitative surveys. Collected data

was sorted by dates. Within each data set, the researcher organized the data by theme.

Data was collected over a two month period.

Data Collection

Permission to conduct the study was obtained from the Institutional Review

Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRBPHS) of the University of San

Francisco. The collection of data took place in August and September of 2006.

Permissions at the various universities were arranged through the provost’s office in

advance with a request to allow subject participation. All participation was on a volunteer

basis.

Consequent to receiving the requisite permissions to administer the survey, the

researcher requested a list of names, titles, and contact information for those individuals

who will participate in the survey from the office of the provosts from the three

institutions, United Arab Emirates University, Higher Colleges of Technology, and

Zayed University (see Appendix L). As soon as the list was provided to the researcher, an

email was sent with a message inviting the subjects to participate in the study (Appendix

E), and two separate attachments including informed consent form (Appendix F), the

Subject’s Bill of Rights (Appendix E). The link to the online questionnaire was in the

body of the email. The deans who participated had two choices to show consent: either

typed their name and the date on the consent form, or if they wished to remain

anonymous they typed the following sentence in the consent sheet: “By completing the

questionnaire and emailing it back to the researcher, I would have expressed my consent

to participate in this study.” Subjects emailed the consent from their email address to the

56

researcher. Once the questionnaires are completed and returned, the surveys were coded

and subjects’ names were replaced with numbers. Additionally, the email advised the

respondents that participation is completely voluntary.

Data Analysis

Quantitative Data Analysis

Data were analyzed using the statistical analysis software SPSS. Data analysis

incorporated various statistical processes aimed at providing an interpretation of the raw

data as it relates to answering the following research questions:

1. To what extent do deans at the public universities in the United Arab Emirates

practice the five transformational leadership practices: challenging, inspiring,

enabling, modeling, and encouraging?

Ratings on the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) were used to determine

levels of transformational leadership from data generated from responses to

the five sets of LPI statements using frequency distributions, means, and

standard deviations.

2. What are the perceptions of deans of their organizational culture at the public

universities in the United Arab Emirates?

Ratings on the Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) were used to

determine levels of organizational culture from data generated from responses

to the three sets of OCI statements using frequency distributions, means, and

standard deviations for each university.

3. To what extent does transformational leadership of deans predict the

constructive organizational culture at various public universities in the United

57

Arab Emirates?

Ratings on the overall Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) being the

predictive variable, and the three Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI)

subscales being the three dependent variables were used to determine if

transformational leadership of the deans predicts the constructive

organizational culture, using linear regression, or discriminant analysis.

4. What is the relationship between specific transformational leadership practices

of the deans and the types of organizational culture at public universities in

the United Arab Emirates?

Ratings on the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) questionnaire being

predictive variable, and the Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI)

questionnaire being dependent variable were used to determine the

relationship between specific transformational leadership practices of the

deans and the types of organizational culture at public universities in the

United Arab Emirates, using correlation of the five practices of LPI practices

and three subscales of OCI statements.

5. What are the self-perceptions of the leadership practices of the deans based on

the following variables: gender, ethnic background, current experience level,

and tenure?

Ratings on the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) questionnaire and the

four control variables gender, ethnic background, current experience level,

and tenure from the Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) questionnaire,

using t-test for gender at two levels; ANOVA: multilevel nominal variable for

58

ethnicity; Pearson Correlation Coefficient for experience level, and tenure

measured as interval-level variables.

Qualitative Data Analysis

The researcher prepared the data for analysis by transcribing all interviews, and

typing all field notes. All data were read carefully by the researcher, after which he

recorded his general thoughts. The researcher began a detailed data analysis by coding

the data; this process generated a description of the organizations and the participants as

well as the categories or themes for analysis.

The data collected from interviews and documents were used to address the

following qualitative research questions:

1. What makes a dean a good academic leader?

2. What would you describe as your key leadership practices?

3. Could you describe the organizational culture at your institution? How are

your practices impacted by the organizational culture?

4. What other factors influence deans’ practices at your institution?

5. Describe the impact that deans have at the organizational culture at your

institution?

6. In your opinion, do you think deans of Western cultural background have a

different impact on the organizational culture then those of Arab or Middle

Eastern cultural background?

7. How do you think faculty members at your university perceive deans? What

do you think your faculty members really want in terms of leadership?

59

8. In your opinion, what are the characteristics that your institution looks for in

dean’s leadership style?

9. How do you show appreciation to your employees?

The quantitative research as descriptive will prevail the breadth of the data. The

qualitative research as inductive was used primarily as a prelude to quantitative research,

and to fill in any gap may be related to this study. Chapter 4 discusses the findings of this

study.

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CHAPTER IV

FINDINGS

Overview

This study examined the relationship between transformational leadership

practices of the academic deans and the perceived organizational culture of public

universities in the UAE. Additionally, the study assessed to what degree the decisions

and leadership practices of the deans are predictive of the universities’ organizational

culture.

Quantitative data related to leadership practices of deans were analyzed and

compared to the organizational culture styles using regression analysis. Data were

collected from academic deans who are employed by public universities in the United

Arab Emirates at the following institutions: UAEU, HCT, and ZU using two online

surveys, Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) and Organizational Culture Inventory

(OCI) were administered. The entire population for this study was 26 academic deans.

Because the population is small, it was treated as the sample for this study. The achieved

response rate for the LPI instrument (n = 13) was 54.2%, and the achieved response rate

for the OCI instrument (n = 11) was 45.8%, because two of the deans who completed the

LPI instrument did not complete the OCI instrument.

Qualitative data were also collected via phone interviews from six academic

deans who completed both the LPI and OCI online instruments. Each phone interview

lasted for 30 minutes. All phone interviews were transcribed, and then all data were read

carefully by the researcher, after which the data were coded and later analyzed. This

61

process generated a description of the culture of the organizations and the leadership

practices of the participants as well as the categories or themes for analysis.

Research Questions and Quantitative Findings

“Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” --Albert Einstein

Research Question One

To what extent do deans at the public universities in the United Arab Emirates

practice the five transformational leadership practices: challenging, inspiring, enabling,

modeling, and encouraging?

Transformational leadership was measured using Kouzes and Posner (1988)

Transformational Leadership Practices (LPI) instrument. The five leadership practice

variables from the LPI instrument were analyzed, as shown in Table 5. The five

leadership practices are considered variables where each is measured by responses on six

statements. The corresponding statements were measured using a 10-point scale with

higher values indicating greater demonstration of leadership practices. A raw score was

derived for each respondent and a mean and standard deviation were calculated for each

variable. Table 5 provides the mean and standard deviation for each practice.

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Table 5 Dean LPI Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Transformational Leadership Practices

Transformational Leadership Practices

Mean SD

Challenge The Process 7.2 1.1

Inspire A Shared Vision 7.2 1.3

Encourage The Heart 7.5 1.4

Model The Way 7.8 0.9

Enable Others To Act 8.4 0.8

LPI Practices Scale 7.6 0.9

n = 13

The means and standard deviations for each of the transformational leadership

practices ranged from 7.2 (SD = 1.1) to 8.4 (SD = 0.8). Enabling Others to Act practice

had the highest mean (8.4) and lowest standard deviation (0.8), which indicates that all

the data points were close to the mean and there was little disagreement among the

responses of the deans. Therefore there were more consensus and agreement among the

deans in this practice. This leadership practice also received the highest and most

consistent ratings. However, the Encourage the Heart practice had the highest standard

deviation score of 1.4, indicating that there was more disparity and more variability

among the responses of the deans.

The mean score for the transformational leadership practices scale was 7.6 with a

standard deviation of 0.9. The data were normally distributed with a slight skewness to

the right. Figure 8 shows the distribution of the data on the density curve.

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Figure 8. Histogram and Normal Curve of Dean LPI Practices Scale

The data range of the transformational leadership practices were well distributed

with an exception of one high score. Figure 8 also shows minimal influence of outliers on

the distribution.

Each of the five transformational leadership practices means ranged from a

minimum to a maximum value. The minimum scored varied from 5.2 to 7.2, while the

maximum scores do not vary much 9.3 to 9.8. Table 6 illustrates these findings.

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Table 6 Dean LPI Mean Scores – Minimum and Maximum for Leadership Practices

Transformational Leadership Practices

Minimum Score Maximum Score

Inspire A Shared Vision 5.2 9.8

Challenge The Process 5.5 9.3

Encourage The Heart 5.5 9.7

Model The Way 6.0 9.5

Enable Others To Act 7.2 9.8

n = 13

Table 6 shows that Enable Others to Act practice had the smallest range of those

scores, with a highest minimum score of 7.2 and a maximum score of 9.8; while Inspire

A Shared Vision had the largest range with a minimum score of 5.2 and a maximum

score of 9.8. In addition, the average of maximums had closer distribution that ranged

from 9.3 to 9.8, whereas the average of minimums had high distribution that ranged from

5.2 to 7.2.

Research Question Two

What are the perceptions of the deans of their organizational culture at the public

universities in the United Arab Emirates?

Organizational culture was measured using the Organizational Culture Inventory

(OCI). The following variables: Constructive, Passive/Defensive, and

Aggressive/Defensive styles were measured using a 5-point Likert scale, with 1

representing Not at All, and 5 representing To a Very Great Extent (see Appendix C for

definitions details). The OCI produced a score for the three variables. Table 7 provides

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the mean scale score, standard deviation, and percentile scores for each cultural style; in

addition, the strength and intensity values were also derived for each culture style.

Table 7 Dean OCI Mean Scale Scores, Standard Deviations, Percentiles, Strengths, and Intensities

Organization Culture Styles Mean Scale Score

SD Percentile Strength Intensity

Constructive 33.3 6.5

Humanistic-Encouraging 34.5 8.6 42% Average Very Weak

Affiliative 34.3 7.8 21% Below Avg Weak

Achievement 34.3 6.4 29% Below Avg Weak

Self-Actualizing 30.3 5.1 19% Low Average

Passive/Defensive Styles 31.1 7.1

Approval 31.7 8.1 86% High Very Weak

Conventional 30.9 7.8 77% Above Avg Weak

Dependent 35.3 7.6 91% Very High Very Weak

Avoidance 26.6 7.4 94% Very High Weak

Aggressive/Defensive Styles 27.6 5.3

Oppositional 25.3 3.7 85% High Strong

Power 28.5 8.3 82% High Weak

Competitive 27.3 9.1 85% High Very Weak

Perfectionistic 29.4 5.6 52% Average Weak

n = 11

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Organizational cultures were perceived similarly by deans as illustrated by mean

scores. The mean score for Constructive styles ranged from 30.3 (SD = 5.1) to 34.5 (SD =

8.6), the mean score for Passive/Defensive styles ranged from 26.6 (SD = 7.4) to 35.3

(SD = 8.1), and the mean score for Aggressive/Defensive styles ranged from 25.3 (SD =

3.7) to 29.3 (SD = 9.1). Among the three organizational culture styles, the Constructive

style had the highest mean score of 33.3, with a strength that varied from low to average;

while Aggressive/Defensive style had the lowest mean score 27.6, with a strength that

varied from average to high.

The corresponding Table 7 includes the organizations’ percentile scores as well as

the organizations’ unadjusted—raw—scores for each of the 12 cultural norms measured

by the OCI. In addition, the table presents the standard deviation scores of the responses

around the raw scores. The standard deviation scores provide indication of the intensity

or the amount of agreement among deans regarding the extent to which particular cultural

norms are predominant within the organizations. For instance, the raw score on

Humanistic-Encouraging is 34.5 and the standard deviation is 8.6, approximately 42% of

the deans had raw scores between 25.9 and 43.1 along the Humanistic-Encouraging

cultural norm. Converting these results to percentile scores, the range falls below the 50th

percentile to above the 75th percentile and that is only accounting for 42% of the deans.

The strength levels were analyzed based on the percentile score which was

calculated from the unadjusted—raw data—total scores of the three organizations to

provide a more understandable picture of the culture of the organizations. Although the

Aggressive/Defensive style produced a strength that ranged from average to high, it is

considered to be somewhat maladaptive, and may not be good for long term survival of

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the organization. The Aggressive/Defensive style promotes task-oriented behaviors,

which indicate tasks are completed, and at moderate levels are not only normal but

healthy for a short time within the organization.

The smaller the standard deviation, the greater the intensity of the culture and

agreements among organizational deans in regards to a particular cultural norm.

Conversely, the larger the standard deviation, the lower the intensity and agreement

among organizational deans. The intensity values derived in Table 7—strong, average,

weak—are based on comparisons to the distribution of standard deviations reported by

over 700 other organizational units in which the OCI was administered.

The Passive/Defensive, Aggressive/Defensive and Constructive three

organization culture styles, which consisted of 120 statements in the OCI described some

of the behaviors and personal styles of the deans were individually scored and then

aggregated and plotted on to a Circumplex. Figure 9 is a graphical representation of the

data analysis procedure in relation to this study.

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Figure 9. Circumplex of OCI Style of Deans at Public Universities in the UAE

n = 11 Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) by Kouzes and Posner (1995), and Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) by Cooke and Lafferty (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989).

The Passive/Defensive and Aggressive/Defensive styles are prevalent in this

Circumplex. The deans also answered twelve perception questions regarding how they

felt about working at their individual university in the UAE. Table 8 provides the mean

and standard deviation scores of perceptions of the deans of their organizations that were

derived from the OCI instrument.

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Table 8 Dean Mean Scores and Standard Deviations for Perceptions of Organizations

Organization Perception Questions Mean SD

1. Ensure that customer feels good about the service provided 4.2 0.6

2. Recommend this organization to potential customers 3.5 1.0

3. The organization will get repeat business from its customers 3.4 0.8

4. Recommend this organization as a good place to work 3.2 1.2

5. Being satisfied as a member of this organization 3.1 0.9

6. Expect to be with this organization two years from now 3.0 1.2

7. The organization has a reputation for superior customer service 3.0 0.8

8. Knowledge about what is expected of you 2.9 0.9

9. Your job requires you to think and behave differently* 2.9 1.0

10. Fit comfortably as a member of this organization 2.8 0.8

11. The organization responds effectively to the changing needs of customers 2.7 1.0

12. Receiving inconsistent messages regarding what is expected* 2.6 0.9

n = 11 * The coding for these items was reversed to be consistent with the response format of the other items.

A Likert scale type questions were used, with 1 indicated not at all and 5 indicated

to very great extent. Questions 1 has the highest mean score of 4.2 (SD = 0.6), indicating

that the deans will go out of their way to make sure that faculty, staff and students get

very good service; this mean score indicates that the answers of the deans were on the

higher side of the Likert scale. Similarly, the small standard deviation (0.6) indicates that

there is no large degree of disagreements among the responses of the deans. The lowest

mean scores and highest standard deviation were among other issues related to the

inconsistent messages the deans received regarding what is expected of them and how

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their organizations do not respond effectively to the changing needs of the faculty, staff

and students.

The first question of the 12 perception questions had the highest mean score of

4.2 (SD = 0.6), which indicates that all the participants across the public universities in

the UAE would go the extra step to ensure that their faculty members, staff, and students

feel good about the services and leadership they are provided. Question 11 had the 2nd

lowest mean score of 2.7 (SD = 1.0) indicating that the leadership practices of the deans

are impacted by the lack of the organizational responsiveness to the need of the faculty

members, staff and students. Moreover, the mean scores for questions 4, 5 and 6 were

neutral (3.0), which means neither agree nor disagree. The scores indicate whether the

deans were satisfied with their organizations, if they would stay with their organization

for more than two years, and their perceptions of services provided by their organizations

to their employees.

Research Question Three

To what extent does the transformational leadership of the deans predict the

constructive organizational culture at the various public universities in the United Arab

Emirates?

A multiple regression analysis looked at the contribution of all the

transformational leadership practices scores to predict each of the three OCI scores, as

illustrated in Figure 10 below.

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Constructive Style

Passive/Defensive Style

Aggressive/Defensive Style

TransformationalLeadership

1

2

3

Figure 10. Regression Analysis of LPI and Individual OCI Style

Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) by Kouzes and Posner (1995), and Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) by Cooke and Lafferty (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989).

Table 9 provides the results of the correlation between the total transformational

leadership practices of the deans and their three organizational culture styles:

constructive, Passive/Defensive, and Aggressive/Defensive.

Table 9 Correlation Coefficients Values of Transformational Leadership Practices and Individual Organization Culture Styles for the Deans

Organization Culture Styles

Correlation (r) Constructive Passive/Defensive Aggressive/Defensive

Transformational Leadership Practices

.2 -.4 -.3

p-values .5 .2 .4

n = 11 * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

The correlation coefficients between the total transformational leadership

practices of the deans and each of the organizational culture styles are not statistically

significant, possibly due to the sample size (n = 11). The correlation coefficients values

are considered weak to moderate, and they are indicative as descriptive statistics not

inferential statistics. That is, the relationship between transformational leadership

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practices of the deans and the constructive style is weak and positive, the relationship

between transformational leadership practices of the deans and the Passive/Defensive

style is moderate and negative, and the relationship between transformational leadership

practices of the deans and the Aggressive/Defensive style is weak and negative. The

coefficient of determination, R2, shows that organizational culture styles; constructive,

Passive/Defensive, and Aggressive/Defensive are explained, respectively, by 4 %, 16 %,

and 9% of the transformational leadership practices of the deans.

Research Question Four

What is the relationship between individual transformational leadership practices

of the deans and the types of organizational culture at public universities in the United

Arab Emirates?

The variables that were analyzed are the five LPI statements, and the three OCI

subscales, as illustrated in Figure 11.

TransformationalLeadership

challenge the process

inspire a shared vision

enable others to act

model the way

encourage the heart

Constructive Style

Passive/Defensive Style

Aggressive/Defensive Style

1

2

3

Figure 11. Relationship Between Individual LPI Practice and Individual OCI Style

Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) by Kouzes and Posner (1995), and Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) by Cooke and Lafferty (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989).

73

Table 10 provides the results of the correlation between each of the

transformational leadership practices of the deans: Challenge the Process, Inspire a

Shared Vision, Enable Others to Act, model the way, and Encourage the Heart and the

three organizational culture styles: Constructive, Passive/Defensive, and

Aggressive/Defensive.

Table 10 Correlation Coefficients of Individual Transformational Leadership Practices and Individual Organization Culture Styles for the Deans

Transformational Organization Culture Styles Leadership Practices Constructive Passive/Defensive Aggressive/Defensive

Model the Way .43 (.18)

-.42 (.20)

-.28 (.41)

Inspired a Shared Vision .12 (.73)

-.20 (.56)

-.08 (.81)

Challenge the Process .18 (.59)

-.37 (.27)

-.25 (.47)

Enable Others to Act .35 (.30)

-.43 (.19)

-.47 (.15)

Encourage the Heart -.05 (.87)

-.30 (.37)

-.14 (.69)

n = 11 * Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2-tailed)

The correlation coefficients between each of the transformational leadership

practices of the deans and each of the organizational culture styles are not statistically

significant, which may be due to the sample size (n = 11).

All correlations ranged from weak to moderate. The Constructive styles shows

positive correlation with each of the transformational leadership practices, whereas

Passive/Defensive and Aggressive/Defensive styles show negative correlation with each

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of the transformational leadership practices. The coefficient of determination, R2, shows

that the organizational culture styles of Constructive, Passive/Defensive, and

Aggressive/Defensive are explained, respectively, by 18.5%, 17.6%, and 7.8%of the

Model the Way practice of the deans; 12.3%, 18.5%, and 22.1% of the Enable Others to

Act practice of the deans. The highest coefficient of determination, R2,

Aggressive/Defensive explained 22.1% of the Enable Others to Act practice of the deans.

Research Question Five

What are the self-perceptions of the leadership practices of the deans based on the

following variables: gender, ethnic background, current experience level, and tenure?

The variables that were analyzed are the five transformational leadership

practices, and the four demographic variables: gender, ethnic background, current

experience level, and tenure from the OCI instrument.

The small sample (n = 11) did not provide any meaningful information because

many of the deans did not complete the tenure position question. As for gender, only one

female dean completed the instruments. In terms of the ethnicity question, only two deans

were from Arabic countries while the rest varied from different western countries.

Consequently, any analysis of the data is potentially misleading.

Research Questions and Qualitative Findings

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought” ~ Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

Qualitative data were also collected via phone interviews from six academic

deans who completed both the LPI and OCI online instruments. Each phone interview

lasted for 30 minutes. All phone interviews were transcribed and then all data were read

carefully, after which the data were coded and later analyzed. This process generated a

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description of the organizations and the participants as well as the categories or themes

for analysis. In addition, the following pseudonyms names will be used to protect the

identity of the participants in this study: Saif an academic dean at UAEU, Fabian an

academic dean at UAEU, Seth an academic dean at HCT, Isaac an academic dean at HCT

Plato an academic dean at ZU, and Gibran an academic dean at ZU. All six deans who

participated in the phone interviews were male. One of the deans was from the Middle

East, two were from the United Sates of American, another two were from United

Kingdom, and one was from Australia. Five of the deans have had administrative

positions such as department chairs and deans at universities in their home countries prior

to joining their current organizations in the UAE. They have been in the UAE between

two to five years, except the Middle Eastern dean who was a professor for many years,

later he held an administrative role, and most recently he became a dean of his college.

Research Question One

To what extent do deans at the public universities in the United Arab Emirates

practice the five transformational leadership practices, challenging, inspiring, enabling,

modeling, and encouraging?

Research question one sought to examine the practices of the transformational

leadership of the deans at the three public universities in the UAE. Three transformational

leadership characteristics were found to be practiced consistently among the respondents:

(1) encouraging, (2) enabling, and (3) inspiring. Additionally recognizing and

communicating characteristics also surfaced through the analysis of the data.

First, encouraging others prevailed in all interviews. A main focus for the deans

across all universities is to encourage faculty members to do what they love most,

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teaching and research, and to help them understand the boundaries of the situations as

they occur. In describing the leadership practices, Isaac stated, “In academic situations,

the academic leadership practices a dean has to employ are collegial.” He believes that

the dean is nominally the boss of a group of a highly qualified people in their fields.

Consequently, cooperation and the ability to achieve a set of objectives for a department

or the school requires people to be treated by “the respect that they want by virtue in their

professionalism”, to treat them in a collegial way, encourage them to work

independently, and ask them for their advice. He added, “You have to encourage and give

them motivation” to get their job done and to feel valuable.

Second, enabling faculty and staff members to search outside the formal

boundaries of their organization for innovative ways to improve what they do is a major

element in the success of the organization. According to Saif, it is important for faculty

and staff to “see beyond today, and to be oriented with the practice for long term

planning.” Enabling is a multifaceted practice, which encompasses the self and others.

According to Plato, “one of the qualities of the academic dean is having the ability to

understand where change is needed and to facilitate that change and enable it.”

Third, the key practice of inspiring is another the respondents apply in their

leadership. Isaac believes that for leaders to be an inspirational they need to be able to

identify credibility in their staff and those who have genuine conviction about the higher

meaning and purpose of our work. He later added:

Faculty members want the kind of leadership that conveys a set of future directed goals and would encourage adopting those future goals and enabling the faculty to reach them. So it is an enabling type of approach they would want. They want someone who has a vision and able to in incorporate those visions and provide necessary support.

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In addition, appreciating the faculty and staff and responding to their need in a

positive way, enable them to want to work harder and resolve their own conflict. Gibran

believes that a good leader is someone who does not solve the problems. Instead, “he

gives the guidance in the form of principles that could be used over and over again for

different situations.”

Moreover, to the three transformational leadership practices, recognizing the

effort and contribution of the faculty and staff members both formally and informally is a

practice in leadership. All interviewed deans show appreciation to their employees, either

by compensating them financially, highlighting their achievements in the main university

newsletter, or by promoting the qualified ones. Also, by reminding them that “their

contribution has an impact on the university as a whole,” as indicated by Plato.

Communication is an important tool needed to accomplish tasks at hand. One of

the leadership practices of the deans is to use “persuasive communication power and to

be able to communicate the vision to the people” as noted by Isaac. Communication is an

essential key, and without effective communication, survival and success of the

organization might be impossible (Nykodym, Ariss, Simonetti, & Plotner, 1995).

Therefore, it is a key for deans to communicate with everyone the shared mission and

vision of their departments, school and the whole university. According to Seth, deans

“need to communicate with the faculty what curriculum they are moving forward,”

sharing with them “what is very useful to them in the classroom for the students’

learning,” and getting them and the students “excited about teaching and learning.”

Communication is a two way street, Seth believes, that to succeed in the line

communication, deans need to listen and get feedback from the faculty and staff with

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whom they work. He later added, “I look for ways to achieve cooperation with the faculty

members that are spread out geographically in the HCT colleges in the UAE.” Research

by Olaniran, Savage, and Sorenson (1996) posited that face-to-face communication

brings greater satisfaction to employees; it is also more effective in generating ideas and

evaluating business processes. Plato strongly believes that a key leadership practice

would be a face-to-face communication, “where possible, and as transparently as often as

possible” he added. Communication has been and will continue to be a big part of

leadership practices. It is “moving forward the understanding of everybody in the

university with respect to the stated goals, mission, and objectives for the department,

college or for the university,” as stated by Plato. The next question focused on the deans’

perceptions of their institutions.

Research Question Two

What are the perceptions of the deans of their organizational culture at the public

universities in the United Arab Emirates?

Research question two was intended to reveal the perceptions deans hold of their

respective organizational culture. The organizational culture at each of the three public

universities in the UAE is very transient. According to Chilton (2005), 75% of the

general workforces in the UAE are expatriates. The data also revealed that 50% to 95%

of the faculty members and deans at the public universities in the UAE are from the

Western world, predominantly the United Kingdom, Australia, with the majority being

from North America. All non-citizens of the UAE have work contracts for three to five

years. In addition, the public universities are still in their developmental stages, recently

established within the past five to thirty years. Hence, there is no specific organizational

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culture style at any of the universities. According to Plato, there is an ambience of

different administrative styles due to the international aspect, and there is no “one

particular organizational culture at Zayed University.”

It is obvious that there is a blend of organizational culture within each of the

universities. They are made up of “many nationalities who have been schooled in

different traditions,” according to Fabian. He later added that the mix of all these cultures

often “negotiates what they are going to do collectively.” As a result of the mixture of

cultural styles and sources of people, the “UAEU is in a resistive state of catching up to

state of the art in inspirational areas, mostly like Western Europe and throughout North

America,” affirmed by Fabian. The statements made by the deans are indicative of the

perceptions of most research participants. Question three examined the transformational

leadership practices of the deans in relation to the constructive organizational culture of

their institutions.

Research Question Three

To what extent does the transformational leadership of the deans predict the

constructive organizational culture at the various public universities in the United Arab

Emirates?

Research question three examined the transformational leadership practices of the

deans as they relate to the constructive organizational culture at their institutions. The

data from the interviews revealed that all deans employ transformational leadership

practices through their deanship at their various institutions, by encouraging faculty and

staff to grow in their profession, and by acknowledging and rewarding their

accomplishments. Other ways deans are able to enable faculty and staff through listening

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to them, as well as inviting them to participate in meeting to share their valuable inputs

with their colleagues. In addition, deans are constantly looking for new ways of doing

things to improve the whole system.

The deans try to cultivate constructive organizational culture by achieving self set

goals, being receptive to change, encouraging growth and development in others, and

delegating and sharing responsibilities. All deans believe that in recent years the higher

authorities at their institutions are aiming towards a constructive culture for their

organizations.

The data from the interviews indicated that passive and aggressive organizational

cultural styles exist at the three public universities in the UAE. A passive cultural style is

one that members of the organizations feel pressured to think and behave in ways that are

inconsistent with the way they personally believe they should behave in order to be

effective leaders. Organizations with aggressive cultures tend to be pervasive in

organizations that operate in fast-paced environments and they also tend to place

relatively little value on people and focus on weeding out mistakes and errors to promote

internal competition. An Aggressive/Defensive cultural style is one in which employees

are not given ample opportunities to work out issues but may be let go from their jobs.

For example, because all public universities in the UAE do not have any real employment

protection for their non-citizen employees, it is perceived by the employees that they are

less threatened because they are highly educated and employable. According to Saif,

“anyone who crosses the line—sort of possibly—will be terminated,” and that it is

something in the back of everyone’s mind. In addition, many of the policies have been

rooted to an old organizational culture, which in most recent years, the higher leadership

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realized the need to change, and they have been employing new deans from the USA who

can help them make it happen. According to Fabian, it is evidence that there is an old

“rooted organizational culture that is hard to get rid of, and will that will take time to

change.”

The lack of tenureship among the non-citizen employees does not give them a

sense of belonging to the institution, and it provides the higher authority more power. As

Seth stated, “Everything works from the top down,” and there seems to be a sense of full

control over everything, and the higher authorities want to be involved in many things.

However, there is also a sense of ambiguity about some roles and responsibilities of the

deans. According to Fabian, “My practices are of course impacted by the culture of the

university.” He later added:

The deans here are not as independent as the deans in the United States, if they have any problem they go back to check-in with the higher authority at the university. Because the top management prefers the micro-management style, they also try to decentralize the colleges from the administrations, they just can not let go. That is a major problem, if we can overcome this problem, our university would be one of the best.

Higher levels of bureaucracy exist in all the public universities in the UAE, which

slow down the implementation process for the constructive cultural styles to be employed

by the new deans. Gibran stated, “In a quantitative sense, the numbers of steps of

leadership I have to go through to explain things are greater in total numbers and in

frequencies then if I were to go to do the same job in the USA.” Therefore, the attrition

rate is higher than what one sees in an academic organizational culture that offers

tenureship to its faculty and staff. As a result, setting up expectation among faculty and

administrators is an ongoing process. The next question examined the relationship

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between transformational leadership practices of the deans and the various types of

organizational culture that already exist at their institutions.

Research Question Four

What is the relationship between individual transformational leadership practices

of the deans and the types of organizational culture at public universities in the United

Arab Emirates?

Research question four sought to discover the relationship between the leadership

practices of the deans and the different types of organizational cultures at their

institutions. All non-citizen deans are working in a multicultural environment. Plato

believes that the ability for the deans to be effective internally at their institution and

externally with the UAE community and businesses is important because they need to

“acquire a deeper understanding first of their organizational culture and the national

cultural practices,” much more then if they were leading in institutions in their home

countries.

The data shows that deans have different personalities, and their leadership

practices are a collection of their schooling and prior leadership practices. Yet they all

seem to have a transformational leadership practices. At the same time, no one

dominating organizational culture at every institution can be seen. The organizational

cultures have been in flux due the age of the institutions and need to change to become

more competitive in the industry. On the other hand, the data shows that constructive,

passive and defensive organizational cultures exist at different levels at every institution,

the latter is more prevailed but all leaders including the deans are working towards the

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transformation to have a more constructive culture. The final question looked at the self-

perceptions of the deans in relation to their descriptive variables.

Research Question Five

What are the self-perceptions of the leadership practices of the deans based on the

following variables: gender, ethnic background, current experience level, and tenure?

Research question five was intended to disclose any self-perceptions of the deans

based on different variables such as gender, ethnic background, current experience level,

and tenure track at their organizations. At least two deans from each university

participated in the phone interviews; almost all of them had similar self-perceptions of

the leadership practices of the deans. However, their answers varied based on their

professional experience and personality. Plato noted that “the leadership practices of the

deans depend far more on the individual personality and the expertise of the deans than

their origin or gender.” The interviews also revealed that the self-perceptions of

leadership practices of the deans are to lift, motivate, and direct people to the discipline.

Additionally, self-perception is also important to elevate the faculty and staff members in

their professionalism, and to make them feel that they are performing very good functions

and they “are valued as such,” Seth noted.

Summary of Major Qualitative Findings

“Research is to see what everybody else has seen, and to think what nobody else has thought” -- Albert Szent-Gyorgyi

This study reveals major findings that provide insight for the multifaceted

attributes which frame the theoretical rationale of this study. It is also gives a deeper

understanding of the transformational leadership practices of the deans in relation to their

organizational cultural styles at the three public universities in the UAE.

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The following table 11 provides highlight of the major qualitative themes across

the six interviews.

Table 11 Major Qualitative Themes Across The Six Interviews

Pseudonyms Name

Organization Major Themes

Saif United Arab Emirates University

All leaders of the organization need to have long terms planning.

Lack of employment protection causes people to feel that anyone who crosses the line—sort of possibly—will be terminated.

Fabian United Arab Emirates University

Practices of the deans are impacted by the culture of the university.

Seth Higher Colleges of Technology

Everything works from the top down. Importance of communication with the faculty

about the curriculum, and getting them excited about teaching and learning.

Isaac Higher Colleges of Technology

Importance of persuasive communication power to be able to communicate the vision to the people.

Employ collegial dean practices. Achieve a set of objectives requires people to be

treated by the respect that they want by virtue in their professionalism.

Plato Zayed University

Importance of communicating the stated goals, mission, and objectives for the university.

Understand where change is needed and to facilitate that change and enable it.

Importance of deeper understanding of the organizational culture and the national cultural practices.

Gibran Zayed University

Give guidance in the form of principles that could be used over and over again for different situations.

Need for independent deans’ leadership similar to the one in the United States.

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All the public universities in the UAE are made up of many nationalities, which

indicate there are blends of cultures. The higher authoritative leaders—president

cabinet—have recognized this issue and they are moving forward towards transforming

the organizational cultures to become more constructive. They are accomplishing this

task by hiring new deans from the western world, predominately the USA; because they

believe that once the organizational culture exists, it determines the criteria of leadership,

and vice versa.

All participants believe that the leadership practices of the deans depend far more

on the individual personality, and expertise than their origin or gender. They all exercise

transformational practices in their leadership roles at their universities, that will allow the

universities to move forward towards improving the quality of teaching, and research as

well as build strong relationships with other western universities and ultimately getting

their programs accredited by American accreditation organization. All participants also

believe that leaders should be conscious of the organizational culture otherwise it will

manage them and subjugate their leadership.

Summary of Major Quantitative Findings

This study reveals four major findings that provide insight for the multifaceted

attributes which frame the theoretical rationale of this study. It also gives a greater

understanding of the relationship between transformational leadership practices of the

deans and the perceived organizational culture of public universities in the UAE.

First, of the five transformational leadership practices of the deans, Enable Others

to Act had the highest mean score of 8.4 (SD = 0.8). The relatively low standard

deviation score indicates that there is consensus and little disagreement among the

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responses of the deans. In addition, this transformational leadership practice received the

highest and most consistent ratings from all deans as illustrated in Table 5. In addition, it

also has the lowest mean scores that ranged with a minimum score of 7.2 and a maximum

score of 9.8, as presented in Table 6.

Second, all organization culture styles have similar mean scores. Where the

Constructive style has the highest mean score of 33.3 (SD = 6.5), and the

Aggressive/Defensive style has the lowest mean score of 27.6 (SD = 5.3), as provided in

Table 7. In addition, of the 12 perception questions that were presented in this study in

the OCI instrument which are presented in Table 8, the first question regarding the

perception of the respondents towards employees satisfaction about the services provided

to them has the highest mean score of 4.2 (SD = 0.6), which indicates that deans across

all universities would go the extra step to ensure that their faculty, staff, and students feel

good about the services and leadership that are provided by the deans. Whereas, question

11 regarding the perception of the respondents towards the effectiveness response of

organization to the needs of employees had almost the lowest mean score of 2.7 (SD =

1.0), which shows that the leadership practices of the deans may be impacted by the lack

of the higher leaders—president cabinet—responsiveness to the need of the faculty, staff

and students.

Third, the result of this study shows no statistical significant association between

the transformational leadership practices of the deans and their perceived organizational

culture styles. It is important to note that the Constructive style shows positive correlation

with each of the transformational leadership practices, whereas, Passive/Defensive and

Aggressive/Defensive styles show negative correlation with each of the transformational

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leadership practices. In addition, the coefficient of determination, R2, shows that the

Passive/Defensive organizational culture style explains16% of the transformational

leadership practices of the deans.

Fourth, the three organization culture styles which consisted of 120 statements in

the OCI described some of the behaviors and personal styles of the deans were

individually scored and then aggregated and plotted on to a Circumplex. Figure 12 is a

graphical representation of the data analysis procedure in relation to this study.

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Figure 12. Circumplex of OCI Style of Deans at Public Universities in the UAE

n = 11 Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) by Kouzes and Posner (1995), and Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) by Cooke and Lafferty (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989).

The Passive/Defensive and Aggressive/Defensive styles are prevalent in this

Circumplex. According to Cooke and Lafferty (1997), the OCI Circumplex allows

comparing the scores of the three universities along the twelve cultural norms to those

described the culture of their organization from similar organizations that were randomly

selected from the OCI database. The bold center ring represents the middle or 50th

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percentile. Scores falling above the middle are considered high relative to the scores of

other organizations and reflect strong expectations for the behavior. Scores that fall

below the middle are considered low relative to the scores of other organizations that

reflect weak expectations for the behavior.

Summary of Quantitative and Qualitative Findings

The quantitative findings of this study were strongly supported by the qualitative

ones. Findings through both methods indicated that all deans share transformational

leadership practices. One of the major leadership practices is Enabling Others to Act,

which had the highest mean score and lowest standard deviation score. In addition, all

participants also believe that enabling and empowering faculty and staff members is a

major element in the success of their organizations. Two of the other five

transformational leadership practices surfaced in the qualitative findings, with similar

high mean scores and relatively small standard deviation scores. Most notably the

leadership practices of Encouraging the Heart and Inspiring a Shared Vision were applied

by deans towards to employees’ achievements and improved academic performances.

Quantitative data analysis showed a prevalence of Constructive organizational

culture style; however, when compared to other similar organizations in the OCI

database, the result of this sample showed organizational culture styles of

Passive/Defensive and Aggressive/Defensive. In the qualitative data analysis, all

participants stated that their organizational culture has been going through a

transformation and has been changing slowly with the recruitment of new academic

deans, especially from the USA. All respondents indicated that the deans are aiming and

currently moving towards the development of a Constructive organizational culture style.

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Additionally, communication was perceived by all participants as an important

tool for the success of the organization. Moreover, the communication question on the

OCI instrument had the highest mean score with the lowest standard deviation score. All

participants also stated that it is important to communicate and as often as possible any

related issues surrounding teaching and learning because that is part of the mission

statement of their institutions.

The study shows no statistical significant association between the

transformational leadership practices of the deans and their organizational culture styles,

may be due to the sample size (n=11). It may also be due to the old routed cultural styles

and the former trickledown leadership practices, as indicated by many participants.

Chapter five will analyze the implications and significance of the data in light of

the theories which formed the foundation of the study. It will also present a

recommendation for future research about transformational leadership practices of

academic deans in relation to their university organizational culture styles.

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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, and RECOMMENDATIONS

This chapter is organized into four sections: conclusion of the study, implications

for future practice, recommendations for future research, and concluding thoughts.

Conclusions

“Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other.” -- John F. Kennedy

Leadership means responsibility. It is relevant in any aspect to ensure

effectiveness in organizations; it is also the driving force to manage change. Leadership is

a process of getting things done through a combined effort of leaders and their

employees. It is the ability to influence people towards the attainment of organizational

goals. Moreover, transformational leadership involves challenging, inspiring, enabling,

modeling, and encouraging towards accomplishing the pre-defined goals.

Organizational culture is considered the common assumptions and value system

that members of the organization use to view their interaction with each others and with

their organizational environment. Organizational culture is also based on shared

conjectures, values, and beliefs.

Organizational culture and leadership are colligated; while leaders create culture

in the early stages of an organization, culture also creates leaders as an organization

matures. Transformational leadership and organizational culture may be helpful in

understanding organizational effectiveness. Developing this type of leadership at every

level of any organization helps to sustain its long term success. Transformational leaders

often inspire their employees to be contributors to their organization. These leaders also

provide their employees with a focus and high levels of support and appreciation to

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encourage them to adopt the mission and vision of their organization, and to work

towards the main goal. The colligation of transformational leadership and organization

culture include leadership of deans and their respective universities.

The need for this study emerges from a body of literature that calls attention to

transformational leadership of the deans in universities and their perception of their

organizational culture. To date, a great deal of research has focused on organizational

culture in relation to leadership practices in different organizational settings from a

variety of perspectives, ranging from disciplines such as, sociology, anthropology,

management science, and organizational change (Collins & Porras, 1994; Kotter &

Haskett, 1992). However, because of the scarcity of literature discussing the relationship

between the leadership practices of the deans and their perceived organizational culture in

the UAE, this study attempted to focus on public universities in the UAE. Bahgat (1999)

asserts that in the UAE, strategic leadership of education is particularly essential as socio-

economic and political transformation has been significant and dramatic during the past

35 years. Moreover, this topic appears to have been overlooked in the expansion and

transformation of education in the UAE since the country development and changes have

been so rapid (Bahgat, 1999).

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between

transformational leadership practices of the deans and the perceived organizational

culture of public universities in the UAE. Additionally, the study assessed to what degree

the decisions and leadership practices of the deans are predictive of the universities’

organizational culture, which in some instances driven from the national Arabic and

Muslim cultures.

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The qualitative findings of this research coincide with the quantitative findings

and provide additional information regarding the perceptions of UAE public universities

deans of their organizational culture. The pivotal finding of this study showed that the

participants practice transformational leadership, and the mean scale score was 7.6 (SD =

0.9). These leadership practices are accomplished by Challenging the Process, Inspiring a

Shared Vision, Modeling the Way, Encouraging the Heart, and Enabling Others to Act.

The latter had the highest mean score of 8.4 with the lowest standard deviation score of

0.8. These scores were not surprising because all the interviewed respondents reported

that their job is to enable and model the way for their employees. Deans attain this

leadership practice by seeking out challenging opportunities to test their own skills,

challenging colleagues with whom they work to try out new and innovative ways of

work, searching outside the formal boundaries of their organization for innovative ways

to improve what they do, setting achievable goals, making concrete plans, and

establishing measurable milestones for the projects and programs that they are work on,

and by taking risks even when there is a chance of failure. In addition, the Enabling

Others to Act leadership practice also received the highest and most consistent ratings

with a minimum score of 7.2 and a maximum score of 9.8.

On the contrary, Challenging the Process leadership practice had the lowest mean

score of 7.2 (SD = 1.1). Although the mean score was the lowest, it is not considered too

low because all respondents stated that they exemplify what they expect of others; they

spend a lot of time and energy ensuring that the people they work with adhere the agreed

upon to the principles and standards. The deans stated that they follow through on the

promises and commitments that they make to their employees; and they often ask for

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feedback on how their actions affect other people’s performances. On a constant basis,

they try to build consensus around a common set of values for leading their

organizations. The fact that Challenging the Process leadership practice had the lowest

mean score of 7.2 (SD = 1.1), it may be due to the job roles and responsibilities in the

public universities in the UAE, which vary depending on the institution, and its age and

geographic location. In addition, all the expatiates deans and faculty members do not

have tenure track—which is part of the policy or law in the UAE—instead, they work

contracts that range from 3 to 5 years in length. Therefore, when people feel that their

jobs are in jeopardy, they come to believe that the best way to take control is to maintain

a highest level of their capacities and to prove that they are the best at what they do

(Cooke, Lafferty, & Szumal, 1989).

There was no statistical significant correlation found between transformational

leadership practices of the respondents and their organizational culture at their

universities in the UAE. However, there was a low positive correlation between

transformation leadership practices of the deans and a Constructive organizational culture

possibly due to the sample size (n = 11). This finding indicated that when the deans feel

that the culture of their organizations is constructive, they are more encouraged to

identify ways to improve the organization and to increase productivity. Because this type

of organizational culture indicates that the success of the organization is everyone’s

responsibility. In addition, the constructive culture generally benefits individual members

as well as the organization as a whole. Moreover, through individual initiative and

effective teamwork, academic services, including teaching, learning, and research offered

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by the organization with constructive cultures tend to be of the highest quality as

evidence in the perceptions of the respondents.

On the contrary, there was low to moderate negative correlation between

transformation leadership practices of the deans and the Passive/Defensive and

Aggressive/Defensive organizational culture. These findings ascertained that when the

deans feel that the culture of their organizations is Passive/Defensive or

Aggressive/Defensive, they are less likely to use their transformational leadership skills.

Members of organizations with Passive/Defensive cultures feel pressured to think

and behave in ways that are inconsistent with their personal beliefs. It can be concluded

that the employees will do whatever it takes to please others to avoid interpersonal

conflicts. Passive/defensive culture tends to emerge in organizations where there is a high

degree of structure, standardization, and control to ensure reliable and consistent output.

This approach was successful during the industrial era—the UAE is going through that

era due to the infancy of the federation—however, it renders today’s organizations

ineffective in terms of responding to customer needs, and keeping up with dynamic and

changing competitive markets. In addition, organizations with Aggressive/Defensive

cultures encourage employees to appear competent, controlled and superior, even if they

lack the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities and experience. Therefore, the constant

pressure to maintain the façade of perfection and expertise comes at the expense of

employees’ motivation, teamwork, and the way in which they treat each others.

Aggressive/defensive culture also tends to be pervasive in organizations that

operate in fast-paced environments. The UAE is growing fast, and according to the data,

employees at the public universities are constantly working in fast-pace environment to

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catch up to the world academic’s standards. As the data indicated and according to the

respondents, it takes passive and aggressive behaviors for the deans at the public

universities in the UAE to succeed in their organization, which shows that the deans have

to be oppositional, competitive, perfectionistic, and need power.

The public universities in the UAE seem to have made a shift in recent years to

change their organizational cultures from being Passive/Defensive and

Aggressive/Defensive to a more Constructive culture. Organizations with constructive

cultures empower their leaders and believe in transformational leadership practices that

are prescriptive rather than restrictive. These organizations also focus on developing their

employees so they can make their decisions based on their own knowledge-based

conclusions. The public universities in the UAE are achieving this change by recruiting

and hiring deans who practice transformational leadership from all over the western

world, especially form the USA.

The consistent cultural perception of the participants across the three

organizations may indicate that the cultures at these universities studied were strong,

indicating that the norms and behaviors are widely shared and intensely espoused. This

may be considered a positive value. This study also confirms the assertion of Bahgat

(1999) that in the UAE, strategic leadership of education is particularly essential as socio-

economic and political transformation has been significant and dramatic since the

federation. Moreover, this topic has been supported and has been given high attention

from the ministry of education to parallel the rapid expansion and development in the

UAE.

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Implications

This research shows that in order for academic organizations to move towards a

constructive culture that supports behaviors such as creativity, satisfaction, cooperation,

and risk taking, it is imperative that leaders of those organizations espouse

transformational practices. Transformational leadership transcends the call of leadership;

it is about developing the employees at every level of the organization which is critical to

achieving the goals of the organization, and to become one of the top institutions.

The public universities in the UAE require significant expertise and people power

to run smoothly and ultimately achieve success. To mobilize existing talent within the

universities to lead transformational efforts, the transformational leaders must be in pace

with the ideal need of their organization. In addition, the organizations must be

supportive and ready to change their existing culture. Therefore, transformational leaders

must have a deep understanding of the identity and impact of the organizational culture

and manifestations of leadership in order to communicate and implement new visions and

inspire others to be committed to them (Schein, 1990). Transformational leaders impact

the culture in many ways by engaging their employees and external constituents in order

for them to become fully familiar with the services provided and understanding processes

internally and externally across campuses, programs, departments, and locally and

globally. Ultimately, successful cross relationships business industries and professionals

will lead to enhancing the position of the organization in the region. This may allow the

leaders to be more aware of new trends in the academic, scientific, and business worlds.

Mutually shared values amongst members of the organization are essence of

transformational leadership practices because values are at the core of the culture that

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ultimately drives behaviors (Schein, 1985). In transformation leaderships, values need to

be developed cooperatively and agreed on by all members of the organization. This

particular cooperative agreement is an example of the Enabling Others to Act

transformational leadership practice. Ultimately this practice promotes cohesiveness, and

it provides employees with a sense of ownership and belonging.

Leadership and organizational culture are reputed to be tightly intertwined

(Schein, 1990).Transformational leaders are powerful communicators of the shared

values and visions of their organizations. Their commitment and passion to the agreed

values and visions make them charismatic exciting all employees who interact with them

(Bass, 1985). Transformational leaders are purported to inspire their employees to

contribute beyond expectation (Bass & Avolio, 1992). Leaders should put their energies

into developing a strong organizational culture that supports; managing change,

achieving goals, empowering team effort, and orientation in the evolving organization

(Schein, 1990). Therefore, transformational leaders can help shape and maintain the

desired organizational culture (Schein, 1990), which in turn may be linked to

organizational effectiveness in universities.

Evolving organizations have a purpose that informs employees how to operate as

a team with a strong sense of intent and common will. In such organizations leaders grow

and shape the culture where employees are clear about their direction and their fit within

the organization. The achieved result encompasses responsibility, clarity and

accountability of all employees for the success of the organization.

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Recommendations for Professional Practices

“Never discourage anyone who continually makes progress, no matter how slow.” -- Plato

Promoting and maintaining an organizational culture that encourages effective

member behavior requires clear and consistent communication across all levels that is

ideal for long term success. One of the goals for change should be directed toward

reducing the gaps between the current and the ideal culture of the organization. A

constructive organizational culture is typically ideal, where the focus should be quality

over quantity, creativity over conformity, and where effectiveness is judged at the system

level rather than the component level. These types of cultural norms are consistent with

the objectives of empowerment, transformational leadership and continuous

improvement.

The role of the Academic Dean is one that is multifaceted and often ambiguous.

As a leader, the dean has many responsibilities and on-going challenges that evolve with

the ever-changing face of higher education. The dean is ultimately responsible for the

quality of education at the college, which is overseeing the development and

improvement of academic life; by balancing undergraduate and graduate education; while

focusing on educational services, such as teaching, learning and research; as well as

applying the by-laws and policies of the universities as they apply to academic matters.

In this light, the information garnered from this study can be used by presidents

and provosts at universities to understand the role that deans can play, which includes—

but is not limited to—change leadership, incorporating characteristics of transformational

leadership, focusing on daily operations rather than innovation, and guiding faculty

through team building and professional development. When the dean is able to freely

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accomplish all of that, then the change can happen, because change is a process, not an

event; and it is accomplished by leaders with strong personal experiences.

Deans are like other leaders. Their leadership is a blend of their heritage,

academic and professional backgrounds, personal beliefs, political affiliation, research

expertise, and mentorship. All the above contribute to the make up of their leadership

identity. Therefore, the hiring institutions need to be aware of these aspects and any

possible differences between Western and Middle Eastern leadership practices.

Moreover, deans from different national cultures need to familiarize themselves with the

business aspects of the national and the organizational culture of their new institution, to

which they may have to adapt in order to effectively carry on the vision of the

organization. In general, when the deans utilize transformational leadership in a

supportive environment, they are more effective and able to expend their greater effort

carrying through with transformational leadership practices.

Recommendations for Future Research

This study investigated the transformational leadership of Academic Deans and

their perceptions of their organizational culture, and the impact of leadership practices on

the culture of their organizations in the public universities in the UAE. In addition to the

deans, surveying full time faculty members would provide additional information about

the impact of leadership on the cultures and subcultures within the organizations. This

information may be useful to top management in the university system to help them guide

their efforts toward leadership development and consistencies.

Despite the sample size (n = 11), this study yielded important findings that are

generalizable to a small population of leaders. A replication of this study with an

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increased sample size and with respondents from a broader range of organizations may

yield more meaningful results. In addition, replication of this study may be useful in other

international academic organizations that employ a blend of international and

multicultural leaders. It may also be beneficial to determine why the LPI score showed a

positive correlation only to a constructive organizational style. Therefore, it would be

beneficial to repeat this study in other universities in the Gulf region to discover if the

same results are shown. Also replication in other industries or other national universities

may show different results, and determining if gender may yield to distinct outcome.

The results of this study call for reflection on ways in which of the three LPI

subscale leadership practices are or are not predictive of the constructive culture. Further

research with a large sample is needed in this area to help leaders focus their effort and

attention on the different leadership practices and their relationship to three

organizational culture styles. Although leadership practices are self-based and are tailored

to work with all employees, some leadership practices may be viewed differently by one

gender than another.

While this study showed that transformational leadership accounted for 36.2% of

the variance in a constructive organizational culture, further investigation is needed to

determine other contributing factors. In addition, the qualitative measures integrated in

this study supported this finding, however further research would likely to add an

unanticipated worth to the results. The national culture of the country was not under the

control of the deans but certainly impacts the culture. It is also plausible that

demographic and religious culture and political environments impact the culture of the

organizations.

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The overall findings of this study have provided the foundation for further

research. Investigation into the value of the leadership practices of Academic Deans and

their perception of their organizational culture must continue in an effort to gain a better

understanding of the role transformational leadership plays in the development and

maintenance of organizational culture.

Concluding Thoughts

“The best of all dealings is the one which is moderate.” -- Prophet Muhammad

This study added an empirical perspective to the sparse body of literature on the

relationship between transformational leadership and the perceived organizational culture

of deans. Support for the implications of this study was found through the quantitative

and qualitative data analysis. As such, leadership development was found to relate to

academic organizational efficacy and that transformational leadership may strengthen

organizational culture and provide the basis culture-building.

Findings of this study showed that transformational leaders in public universities

in the UAE are able to encourage change from aggressive and passive to a constructive

organizational culture. This is being achieved by transforming people and organizations

to expand their vision, crystallize the mission, coincide behaviors with beliefs and values,

and build momentum to bring about changes that are permanent and prevailing. In

addition, values and norms were found to be of key importance. Kotter & Heskett (1992)

note that values and norms will often yield to the desired constructive culture and

eventually become more fluid.

As the UAE continues to grow and develop its infrastructure, it is imperative for

the national leaders to focus on higher education leadership through encouraging deans

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and other academic leaders to transfer their knowledge in a very constructive and

meaningful way. Thus, future Emiratee deans will derive strength from the heights of

transformational leadership practices, which will put the higher educational system in

public institutions at the forefront of the Gulf and Arab region as well as globally.

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APPENDIXES

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Appendix A

Glossary of Terms

In order to provide a context for understanding how the following terms are used

in this study, the operational definitions of the terms are listed below.

Term Definition

Bedouin: Bedouin, derived from the Arabic badawi, a generic name for a desert-dweller, is a term generally applied to Arab nomadic groups, who are found throughout most of the desert belt extending from the Atlantic coast of the Sahara via the Western Desert, Sinai, and Negev to the eastern coast of the Arabian desert. It is occasionally used to refer to non-Arab groups as well, notably the Beja of the African coast of the Red Sea.

Emiratis: Indigenous UAE people or national people of the UAE.

Hadith: Recorded teachings of the Prophet Mohammed (pbuh), outside of the Quran. Also known as “The Traditions”. The Hadith is commonly taught in Islamic culture as a part of Islamic theology.

Ottoman: The Ottoman Empire was an imperial power, centered around the borders of the Mediterranean Sea, that existed from 1299 to 1922.

Shari’ah: The principle source of Shari’ah is the Quran itself; the very core of the Shari’ah are the “arkan ad-din”, or the five pillars of Muslim religion, which prescribe all the rituals incumbent on a believer.

Sheikhdoms: The domain ruled by a sheik.

Sheikhs: The leader or chief of an Arab village or family. It is also used to refer to a Muslim leader.

Tradition in the UAE: Beliefs or customs or ways of doing something that has existed in the UAE for decades.

Trucial: Before 1971, the seven emirates that make the UAE were known as the Trucial States, in reference of a 19th truce between the British and some Arab Sheikhs.

Quran The holly book of Islam.

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Appendix B

Brief History and Education System of the UAE

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is a single nation that unites various member

states into one country. It is an oil-rich country situated in the southeast of the Arabian

Peninsula in Southwest Asia, comprising seven emirates: Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai,

Fujairah, Ras al-Khaimah, Sharjah, and Umm al-Quwain. Each state within the country is

known as emirate, because they have historically been ruled by emirs, which are basically

a form of prince.

The British involvement in India beginning in the late 18th century quickened

British interest in the gulf region as a means of protecting the sea routes to India. Before

British intervention, the area was notorious for its pirates and slave trade and was called

the Pirate Coast.

In 1820 the Trucial sheikhs agreed to have a peace treaty with the British

government not to enter into any agreements or correspondence with other foreign

powers, receive foreign agents, cede, sell, or give any part of their territory to another

government and to refrain from piracy. In return, the British government assumed

responsibility for the foreign relations of the emirates and promised to protect them from

all aggression by sea and any land attacks. Before the end of the century, Britain

extended protection to Bahrain and Kuwait. Later Qatar entered the system after it

repudiated Ottoman sovereignty in 1916.

As the wealth of oil resources became clear in the gulf region, the size of the

British military establishment expanded. By the end of the 1960s, Britain had about 9,000

men in Oman, Sharjah—an emirate of the UAE—and Bahrain, where British military

headquarters was located.

After World War II the British granted internal autonomy to the sheikhdoms.

Discussion of federation began in 1968 when Britain announced its intended withdrawal

from the Persian Gulf area by 1971. After 150 years of British rule, the sheikhdoms of

Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Sharjah, Ajman, Umm al-Quwain and Fujairah merged to form the

UAE on December 2, 1971, under the leadership of President Zayed bin Sultan Al

Nahyan, former ruler of Abu Dhabi.

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The UAE has transformed its educational system; currently, it has over 30

institutions of higher learning. Article 17 of the UAE Constitution notes the significance

of education as it relates to progress within society.

The UAE offers a fully-fledged educational system for both boys and girls from

primary level to university, with education for the country’s citizens being provided

gratis. There is also an extensive private education sector.

The UAE government spends about 16% of its budget on education. In 2000 there

were approximately 1,050 schools catering for almost 625,000 pupils. Almost, two thirds

of schools were run by the government, with the remainder run by a range of private

sectors. The overall literacy rate rose from 43% in 1975 to 75% in 2000. According to the

UN, the female adult literacy rate was slightly higher at a rate of 78% in 2000 (Economist

Intelligence Unit, 2003).

Over half a million students are now at school or in college, while several

thousand students, of both sexes, are pursuing courses of higher education abroad at

Government expense.

In the past the last 34 years, the UAE has undergone a dramatic transformation

from a traditional—Bedouin—country to a thriving modern sanction state. Before 1971,

there were no roads, hospitals, or formal schools in the UAE. Since gaining independence

in 1971, the UAE has used its oil revenue to transform its economy and infrastructure,

and became a powerful country in the region and internationally. The UAE has grown

and continues to grow economically and understands the importance of educating their

young men and women equally to become their nation’s future leaders.

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Appendix C

OCI Culture Types and Subscales

Culture Type Subscales (Norms)

Example of Survey Statements That Resemble Actual OCI Questions

Constructive Styles 11. Achievement • Trustworthy

• Accomplish their own goals

• Seek challenges

• Generate creative options

12. Self-Actualizing

• Develop plan for professional growth

• Take calculated risks

• Innovate

• Delight in what they do

1. Humanistic-Encouraging

• Be empathetic to others

• Collaborate in decision making

• Support the development of others

• Treat others with respect

2. Affiliative • Be amiable and warm toward coworkers

• Be considerate of others

• Keep the goals of the group paramount

• Use excellent interpersonal skills

Passive/ Defensive Styles

3. Approval • Work to gain acceptance into the group

• Always be agreeable

• Set goals that make others happy

• Always support the highest level “boss”

4. Conventional • Do what is expected

• Never challenge policies rules, and producers

• Avert discussions about disagreements

• Consider only safe solutions

5. Dependent • Do what they are told, even if they disagree

• Refrain from making suggestions to superiors

• Don’t ask questions that could appear challenging to superiors

• Run all decision past their manager

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Culture Type Subscales (Norms)

Example of Survey Statements That Resemble Actual OCI Questions

6. Avoidance • Always make decisions that will be received favorably

• Try not to take a stand on issues

• Avoid risks

• Let others act first; stay uninvolved if possible

Aggressive/ Defensive Styles

7. Oppositional • Be critical of others

• Resist new ideas

• Be hard to please

• Stay detached from circumstances

8. Power • Maintain a strong authority position

• Be in-charge of as much as possible

• Always be firm

• Play the political game well

9. Competitive • Always be number “1”

• Oppose peers rather than work with them

• Act as if they are superior to others

• make the job as competitive as possible

10. Perfectionistic • They take care of all details without help

• Be sure everything is done flawlessly

• Appear self-assured

• Devise very high standards and goals

Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) by Cooke and Lafferty (1983, 1986, 1987, 1989, 1994) Plymouth, Michigan, USA: Human Synergistics. Copy right 1989 by Human Synergistics, Inc.

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Appendix D

LPI and Corresponding Definitions

Transformational Leadership Practice (LPI)

Corresponding Definitions

Challenging the Process • I set a personal example of what I expect of others.

• I spend time and energy making certain that the people I work with adhere to the principles and standards that we have agreed on.

• I follow through on the promises and commitments that I make.

• I ask for feedback on how my actions affect other people's performance.

• I build consensus around a common set of values for running our organization.

• I am clear about my philosophy of leadership.

Inspiring a Shared Vision • I talk about future trends that will influence how our work gets done.

• I describe a compelling image of what our future could be like.

• I appeal to others to share an exciting dream of the future.

• I show others how their long-term interests can be realized by enlisting in a common vision.

• I paint the “big picture” of what we aspire to accomplish.

• I speak with genuine conviction about the higher meaning and purpose of our work.

Enabling Others to Act • I seek out challenging opportunities that test my own skills and abilities.

• I challenge people to try out new and innovative ways to their work.

• I search outside the formal boundaries of my organization for innovative ways to improve what we do.

• I ask “What can we learn?” when things do not go as expected.

• I make certain that we set achievable goals, make concrete plans, and establish measurable milestones for the projects and programs that we work on.

• I experiment and take risks, even when there is a chance of failure.

Modeling the Way • I develop cooperative relationships among the people I work with.

• I actively listen to diverse points of view.

• I treat others with dignity and respect.

• I support the decisions that people make on their own.

• I give people a great deal of freedom and choice in deciding how to do their

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Transformational Leadership Practice (LPI)

Corresponding Definitions

work.

• I ensure that people grow in their jobs by learning new skills and developing themselves.

Encouraging the Heart • I praise people for a job well done.

• I make it a point to let people know about my confidence in their abilities.

• I make sure that people are creatively rewarded for their contributions to the success of our projects.

• I publicly recognize people who exemplify commitment to shared values.

• I find ways to celebrate accomplishments.

• I give the members of the team lots of appreciation and support for their contributions.

Adopted with permission from the Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) by Kouzes and Posner (1995).

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Appendix E

Electronic Mail Letter of Invitation

Friday, September 28, 2007 Participant’s Name and Title Company or Organization Address Dear Mr./Ms.: My name is Mouwafac Sidaoui and I am a doctoral student pursuing my Ed.D in the School of Education, Organization and Leadership department at the University of San Francisco. I am currently in the process of preparing my proposal for defense. My research study is focused assessing if leadership styles of the deans predict the organizational culture at the public universities in the United Arab Emirates. This is a quantitative research study and my prime method of collecting data will be online surveys.

I am inviting Deans from various public universities in the UAE to give their opinions in this area. By conducting this study, I hope that this research will have later implications for helping create better understanding of the organizational culture and its importance for effective leaders.

You are invited to participate if you are currently a Dean at a university in the UAE. Your opinion is valuable to scholars and researchers in the field of higher education. By volunteering to participate in his study, you will greatly contribute to the field of education and leadership. More importantly, you will be indirectly helping in providing quality knowledge to other potential higher educational leaders like yourself.

As a participant, you will complete two sets of questionnaires that will require about 30 minutes of your time. The First questionnaire is called LPI and it should take up to 10 minutes. The second questionnaire is called OCI and it should take up to 20 minutes. Furthermore, you do not have to complete the two questionnaires simultaneously. If you are interested in participating, please read the Informed Consent Form before completing the questionnaire. You will be reminded of this research once in two weeks and a last time in a month. If you wish to unsubscribe from this study please reply via email to [email protected] and state that you wish to unsubscribe.

Please address any concerns regarding the study or the questionnaire to the researcher. Thank you for your time and contribution. Sincerely, Mouwafac Sidaoui, Doctoral Candidate Tel: 001-415-626-6543, Email: [email protected], Webpage: http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/sidaoui/ Address: 3456 16th Street; San Francisco, CA 94114-1730

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Appendix F

Informed Consent Form

Purpose and Background Mr. Mouwafac Sidaoui, a doctoral student at the University of San Francisco,

School of Education, has asked me to participate in his research study, which will assess if leadership styles of the deans predict the organizational culture at the public universities in the United Arab Emirates. Procedure

I agree to be a participant in this study. I am currently a Dean in one of the public universities in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). I will complete two questionnaires that will require about 30 minutes of my time. This questionnaire includes questions related to my leadership styles and the organizational culture at my university. The questionnaires also include questions related to my personal information such, gender, ethnicity, experience level, and tenure. Risk and Discomforts

I understand that I am free to decline to complete any question or decline to participate in the study at any time. If I am uncomfortable I may terminate my participation in the study at any time. Confidentiality

I understand that my name and anything I contribute to the research will be as confidential as possible. I am aware that the questionnaires will be coded to remove any identifier and the information will be in locked files at all time. Furthermore, I understand that I will be provided a username and email address to use instead of my own if I choose to remain anonymous. I also understand that the researcher and the analyst are the only ones who will have access to my answers. Finally my identity will not be used in any reports or publication as a result from this study. Benefits

There is no direct benefit to me from participating in this study and I will receive no monetary consideration. An indirect benefit is the opportunity to contribute my data to the topic at hand. In addition, my contributing is to for me and other colleagues in the field to better understand the relationship between leadership styles of deans and the organizational culture at public universities in the United Arab Emirates. Alternatives

I have freely chosen to participate in this study. Cost

There will be no cost to me for participating in this study.

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Questions If I have any questions or comments about the study, I may write to Mouwafac

Sidaoui at 3456 16th street, San Francisco, CA 94114-1730 or contact him at 001-415-626-6543 or email him at [email protected]. I may also contact his dissertation chair, Dr. Patricia Mitchell, at the University of San Francisco, at 2350 Turk Boulevard, San Francisco, California 94118, 415-422-2079. Should I not want to address comments to either of them, I may contact the Office of Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects between 8:00AM and 5:00PM, Monday through Friday, by calling 001-415-422-6091 or emailing at [email protected] or by writing to the IRBPHS, Counseling Psychology Department, Education Building, Room 017 at University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton Street, San Francisco, California 94117-1080, USA. Consent to Participate in Research

I have been given a copy of this consent letter to keep. I understand that my participation in the dissertation research conducted by Mr. Mouwafac Sidaoui is voluntary. I fully understand and agree with the above procedures and conditions, and I read the Research Subject’s Bill of Rights. Please reply to the email and type, “By filling the questionnaires for this study, I would have expressed my consent to participate in this study.” ________________________________________________________________________ Participant’s Signature Date ________________________________________________________________________ Researcher’s Signature Date ________________________________________________________________________ Mouwafac Sidaoui Date

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Appendix G

Sample Follow-up Letter

Date Participant Name and Title Company or Organization Address Dear Mr. / Ms.: Thank you for reply. I appreciate your willingness to participate in my research study. I believe that the information you provide will be valuable for my dissertation. My timetable is to complete the survey by the end of June 2006; therefore, I would appreciate hearing from you as soon as possible. Please call or e-mail me at anytime. Thanks again for your assistance in my research. Sincerely, Mouwafac Sidaoui, Doctoral Candidate University of San Francisco, School of Education, Department of Organization and Leadership Tel: 001-415-626-6543, Email: [email protected], Webpage: http://www.usfca.edu/fac-staff/sidaoui/ Address: 3456 16th Street; San Francisco, CA 94114-1730

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Appendix H

Permission Letter from United Arab Emirates University

Friday, September 28, 2007 Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects University of San Francisco 2130 Fulton Street San Francisco, CA 94117 Dear Members of the Committee: On behalf of the United Arab Emirates University, I am writing to formally indicate our awareness of the research proposed by Mr. Mouwafac Sidaoui, a doctoral student at USF. We are aware that Mr. Sidaoui intends to conduct his research by administering an online survey to our deans. I am responsible for employee relations and am an executive officer of the university. I give Mr. Sidaoui permission to conduct his research in our university. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact my office at 011-971-3754-4450 Sincerely, Dr. Essam Hafiz, TITLE United Arab Emirates University * letter should be printed on proper institutional letterhead

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Appendix I

Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI)

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Appendix J

Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) ®

The Organizational Culture Inventory (OCI) is copyrighted by Human Synergistics International. To obtain a copy, kindly contact the publisher's website http://www.humansynergistics.com

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Appendix K

Qualitative Questionnaire

The following are qualitative questionnaires:

1. What makes a dean a good academic leader?

2. What would you describe as your key leadership practices?

3. Could you describe the organizational culture at your institution? How are your practices impacted by the organizational culture?

4. What other factors influence deans’ practices at your institution?

5. Describe the impact that deans have at the organizational culture at your institution?

6. In your opinion, do you think deans of Western cultural background have a different impact on the organizational culture then those of Arab or Middle Eastern cultural background?

7. How do you think faculty members at your university perceive deans? What do you think your faculty members really want in terms of leadership?

8. In your opinion, what are the characteristics that your institution looks for in dean’s leadership style?

9. How do you show appreciation to your employees?

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Appendix L

IRBPHS Approval Letter

From: IRBPHS <[email protected]> Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2006 2:41 pm Subject: IRB Application # 06-037 - Application Approved To: "Mouwafac M. Sidaoui" <[email protected]> Cc: "[email protected]" [email protected] May 10, 2006 Dear Mouwafac Sidaoui: The Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects (IRBPHS) at the University of San Francisco (USF) has reviewed your request for human subjects approval regarding your study. Your application has been approved by the committee (IRBPHS #06-037). Please note the following: 1. Approval expires twelve (12) months from the dated noted above. At that time, if you are still in collecting data from human subjects, you must file a renewal application. 2. Any modifications to the research protocol or changes in instrumentation (including wording of items) must be communicated to the IRBPHS. Re-submission of an application may be required at that time. 3. Any adverse reactions or complications on the part of participants must be reported (in writing) to the IRBPHS within ten (10) working days. If you have any questions, please contact the IRBPHS at (415) 422-6091. On behalf of the IRBPHS committee, I wish you much success in your research. Sincerely, Terence Patterson, EdD, ABPP Chair, Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects --------------------------------------------------- IRBPHS University of San Francisco Counseling Psychology Department Education Building - 017 2130 Fulton Street San Francisco, CA 94117-1080 (415) 422-6091 (Message) (415) 422-5528 (Fax) [email protected] --------------------------------------------------- http://www.usfca.edu/humansubjects/

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Appendix M

List of Possible Research Participants

United Arab Emirates University, Zayed University, and Higher Colleges of Technology: Complete Deans List.

United Arab Emirates University

n Title

1. Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS)

2. Dean, College of Science (COS)

3. Dean, College of Education (CEDU)

4. Dean, College of Business and Economics(CBE)

5. Dean, College of Shari'ah and Law (CSL)

6. Dean, College of Food and Agriculture (CFA)

7. Dean, College of Engineering (COE)

8. Dean, College of Medicine and Health Science (FMHS)

9. Dean, College of Information Technology (CIT)

10. Dean, University General Requirements Unit (UGRU)

11. Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences (CHSS)

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Higher Colleges of Technology

n Title

12. Dean, Engineering

13. Dean, General Education

14. Dean, Education

15. Dean, Information Technology

16. Dean, E- and Blended Learning

17. Dean, Institutional Learning & Effectiveness

18. Head, Corporate Affairs

19. Dean of Business

Zayed University

n Title

20. Dean, Arts and Sciences

21. Dean, Business Sciences

22. Dean, Communication and Media Sciences

23. Dean, Education

24. Dean, Information Systems

25. Dean, Student Affairs

26. Dean, Arts and Sciences

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Appendix N

Sample Job Description of Dean in the UAEU

United Arab Emirates University Dean of College of Science

The United Arab Emirates University invites applications and nominations for the position of Dean of the College of Science. The University expects to fill this position on or before September 1, 2006. The University Founded in 1977, the UAE University is the oldest and largest university in the United Arab Emirates, with its campuses for men and women located in Al-Ain, an oasis city about an hour and a half drive from Dubai and Abu Dhabi. More than 15,000 students are enrolled in the University’s nine colleges. The University offers a broad array of undergraduate degree programs and a selected number of master’s programs. The University has over 3,300 faculty and staff serving students in Colleges of: Business and Economics (accredited by AACSB), Engineering (substantial equivalency by ABET), Education (recognized by CQAIE), Sciences, Humanities and Social Sciences, Medicine and Health Sciences, Food and Agriculture, Information Technology, and Sharia and Law. Graduate level programs include Environmental Science, Material Science and Engineering, Water Resource Science, MBA, Remote Sensing and GIS, Petroleum Science, and Engineering Management. In addition to its already accredited colleges and programs, the University is seeking institutional accreditation with one of the United States’ regional associations. The United Arab Emirates is known for its rapid growth and for the open and tolerant society which has resulted from that growth. The College The College of science was one of the first colleges established in the United Arab Emirates University. Classes started in the College in the academic year 1977/1978. The College of Science has endeavored, since then, to develop its performance and to achieve measures of excellence in its three main activities of teaching, scientific research, and community service. The College of Science has taken significant steps, during the last few years, towards the development of all aspects of the Bachelor Programs in Mathematical Science, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geology. The development process aims at training the students to acquire self-learning skills, introducing unconventional interactive methods of teaching and using modern technologies of teaching, (e.g., Computer-Aided Instruction). These efforts led the College of Science to being recognized as one of the well known centers in the field of modern methods and technology of teaching science in the Arab World.

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The mission of the College of Science is to conduct quality programs in education, research, and community services that support the UAE University mission of preserving, generating, and transmitting knowledge. The College of Science creates an intellectual forum in the various disciplines of sciences. There is a genuine desire on the part of both the College and the University to offer programs of international standards. The Faculty has available the latest technological and pedagogical support. The Position The Dean is the chief executive officer of the College and reports to the Associate Provost for Academic Affairs. The Dean is responsible for the administrative and academic functions of the College, including curriculum development and implementation. He/She will have budgetary responsibilities as well as responsibility for faculty development and evaluation. The Dean is expected to work effectively with students, faculty and other units and colleges. He/She is also expected to encourage excellent teaching, scholarship and research and interact effectively with community leaders. Requirements • Ph.D. from an accredited university in one of the science related disciplines. • Qualifications for appointment to the rank of full professor. • Five years’ experience in academic administration at least. • Outstanding record of scholarly accomplishments. • Experience with a learning-outcomes and assessment based academic model. • Ability to communicate easily with students and faculty. • Strong leadership and team building skills. • Ability to work with diverse cultures and nationalities. • Ability to effectively interact with community leaders locally, nationally and

internationally and to serve as a liaison between the University and the community. Salaries and Benefits • Tax-exempt compensation package • Free housing • Furniture and utilities allowances • Employer paid comprehensive health insurance • Educational allowance for children • Annual airline tickets for employee and family members • End of service gratuity • Generous vacation package To apply Please provide the following documents • A cover letter highlighting administrative and academic experience • A current curriculum vitae

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• Five references including addresses, phone numbers and e-mail addresses of each Please direct applications and inquiries to: *********************** Associate Provost for Academic Affairs, United Arab Emirates University P.O. Box 15551 Al Ain, United Arab Emirates Telephone: +971 3 ******* Fax: +971 3 ******* Web Site: http://www.uaeu.ac.ae E-mail: **************** Electronic submissions are encouraged and may be sent to [email protected]. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled.

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Appendix O

Approval Letter from Kouzes & Posner LPI Instrument

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Appendix P

Approval Letter from Human Synergisitcs OCI Instrument

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